


Baby, My Baby

by 18lzytwner



Series: Law & Order SVU Second Series [2]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2019-07-06 21:23:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 31
Words: 30,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15894399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/18lzytwner/pseuds/18lzytwner
Summary: Olivia is struggling to juggle work, home, and attempts to rekindle a friendship with Elliot when a case hits a little close to the team's home. Can Olivia and the team catch the bad guy? Will Social Services quit bothering Liv and Noah? Will Elliot say "screw friendship"?





	1. Chapter 1

Sergeant Olivia Benson sat at her desk in her office, reading over her detectives' fives on the latest case they wrapped up. Well she was supposed to be reading them. Her mind was preoccupied after the latest hearing regarding the custody of Noah. Juggling her job and her foster child had been difficult but she was up for the challenge.

She had been appalled that Social Services was trying to take her to court, as if she had caused Noah's previously broken ribs and breathing problems. For once she was glad that Counselor Trevor Langan was on her side. Technically he was Noah's attorney but he knew that she would never harm Noah and she was certainly better than putting him back into the system. Although Benson's recent abduction made the case a little harder to prove. Still at the first hint of danger, where she would have ordinarily taken her chances instead of protective custody or having a detail, she got out. She even found a new apartment with Fin's help that put her closer to the precinct and a nearby playground.

Regrettably, Carmine Regetti was still at large but the FBI and Homeland had his operation in a vice and there was little chance of the mobster trying anything for a little while. It had been eight weeks since Elliot's release from the hospital and there was silence from the criminal. Elliot was due to get his cast off later today and he planned to be out of Kathy's hair tomorrow. His job working security at the storage facility was still available, at reduced hours however, and his landlord/boss was glad to see him coming back. He had found an apartment while he was laid up and had worked out a rental agreement for the place which entailed him working security at the building during the day. It was going to be tough working two jobs but in order to actually have an apartment, he needed to do it. Olivia wondered how often she would see him as they tried to patch up their friendship but it was good to see him pulling himself up by the bootstraps.

"Sergeant?" The question from her doorway, made her put her thoughts away.

"What's up Rollins?" Benson asked.

"We've got a case up at the hospital. You want me and Fin to take the interview or head to the crime scene?" The blonde wondered.

"Take the interview and tell Amaro and Carisi to check out the scene. Fill me in on my cell. I need to get home to take to Noah to a doctor's appointment," Olivia explained.

"You got it. See you in the am," Rollins nodded. The blonde turned and left the office. Olivia watched them go and she quickly picked up her paperwork. She'd read the fives later.

At the doctor's office, Liv kept her focus on little Noah. He seemed to be such a happy baby. He had no idea what was going on and she hoped that he'd never have to. At this point, she could not imagine her life without him.

"Olivia?" Doctor Paget, Noah's pediatrician, asked.

"Sorry, there's a lot going on. I'm worried about Noah, the colder weather and all," the Sergeant admitted.

"Well you're doing everything you can and we're doing everything we can. Nothing to worry about. Luckily, he's small enough that he'll be ok. There may be some lingering conditions but we caught it now and we know what to look for and keep an eye out for," the doctor reassured her. Olivia nodded.

"Hey do need help? You seem a bit distracted," Paget commented.

"Sorry. There's a lot going on. I want to be the best mother I can be but Social Services is not helping," Olivia admitted.

"I am sorry for that. Not to worry though. I gave the judge my medical opinion. You should have nothing to worry about," Paget smiled.

"Thank you Doctor," the Sergeant scooped Noah up and put him into his car seat.

"Any time. Don't worry about calling me with any questions. You have my number," the doctor smiled again.

"Yes ma'am," Olivia nodded.


	2. Chapter 2

Not long after she'd gotten Noah and herself into the apartment and started making dinner, she got a phone call from Fin. She moved the pot of semi-boiling water off the hot burner and answered her cell.

"Benson,"

"Hey Liv, it's Fin. We're done at the hospital. The victim, Sherry Rodgers, is in pretty bad shape. She has broken ribs, a punctured lung, two black eyes, a fractured jaw, and two broken arms after telling her ex, who showed up at her house, that she wouldn't have sex with him. The Doctor said it looked like her assailant used his fists and his feet. Rodgers just woke up from surgery and told us that we had to get over to her house to get her daughter, Samantha. Problem is, Amaro and Carisi have been there with the crime scene guys and they didn't find any daughter. I sent out an Amber Alert but the techs say that with the amount of blood they found at the house, they aren't very hopeful," he told her.

"Damn," she cursed.

"Yeah and it gets worse. Rodgers had a restraining order out on her ex-husband, Stephen Boze. Amaro sent some uniforms to his apartment and it looks like he left in a hurry," Fin explained.

"So you think he packed before he came over to her house or after?" Olivia asked.

"I think before. Her neighbor, John Mock, is the one who called the local precinct. He recognized her ex's car and called as quickly as he could. We had to get prints and DNA from him so we can rule him out. He entered the house after he called it in and he and Boze got into it. Boze managed to run out to his car after knocking Mock down. The neighbor said he let him go thinking that Samantha wasn't home and wanting to get to Sherry. The guy is a mess because he thinks that he let Boze kidnap Samantha," he said.

"Something is hinky. No way does the daughter just let her father beat up her mother and no way does Boze have time to hurt her before Mock intervened. You need to press Sherry. This sounds like she was ambushed not that she just let her ex into her home," Olivia told him.

"I'd agree with you on that except that Sherry was really specific. She said that she had just gotten home and that he forced his way in when he came up from behind her and grabbed her. He forced her to unlock the door and then once inside he tried to assault her but she bashed him with her purse, shouted for Samantha to run, and that's when his rage took over. He just started beating her and she lost consciousness soon after the first few blows to her head," Fin gave her a little more background.

"Then we have something much bigger at play here. See if you can find out what Boze's background is. If he did kidnap his daughter, he probably had help. My guess is that his partner snatched up Samantha before Sherry got home, the intention of course to get her away from the scene so Boze could have his way with Sherry. Although with a lot of blood maybe his partner had other ideas," Olivia hypothesized.

"I'll get Carisi digging into it. Meantime, I'll see if Rollins can get more out of Sherry. I'm going to question Mock again. He might know more or he might have seen something without realizing," Fin nodded even though Olivia couldn't see.

"I'll call Lucy and head into the precinct. I need to get ahead of this before Deputy Chief Dodds comes to remind me how to do my job. We need to find Samantha and fast," she said.

"All right on it," with that the phone call ended and Olivia quickly called her babysitter, Lucy. She had been lucky to find the young woman who was practically at her beck and call. She had apologized profusely to Lucy many times about the unexpected phone calls at all hours but the young lady had brushed it off, saying that Noah was one of the easiest kids she had ever babysat.

"Lucy, it's…" Olivia didn't even get to finish.

"On my way," Lucy said.


	3. Chapter 3

"So where are we?" Dodds asked as he entered the precinct the next morning. Olivia had been right. For whatever reason the Deputy Chief had something out for her and the unit and she hoped the news they could give him would have him back off.

"The lab confirmed the blood type that was found at the scene. It wasn't Samantha's. Whoever the blood belongs to, they are Type A and Samantha is Type O. The lab is running any DNA that they can find through the system. If our guy was trying to help Boze, maybe we'll get lucky and he's in the system," Fin started.

"So if it's not the little girl's blood, where is she?" Dodds gave them a questioning look.

"The Amber Alert hasn't panned out yet. Something doesn't add up though. CSU noted that there were two sets of footprints in the yard, heading down the side of the house. The snow gave us messy impressions but the mud that was near the dryer exhaust and up closer to the house gave us some clear ones. Two sets belonging to two males; one is about size eleven and the other is about size nine. No footprints belonging to Samantha, at age eight, she only wears a size five," Rollins filled in.

"Where is this going?" The Chief was losing his patience.

"Lucky for us their exit from the front door would have been cut off by Boze and his assault on Sherry. Now they headed back out the side door which they entered by force," Nick said, showing the picture on the bulletin board. The side door had the glass smashed on the one side and there on the other was blood smeared all over it.

"So there were multiple kidnappers and somehow one of them ended up bleeding all over. The little girl is somehow trained in dangerous weapons?" Dodds was incredulous.

"No. Her mom was taking her to Tae Kwon Do classes. We found her karate gear in her room. My guess is she made one of them pay with the knife he brought," Nick continued.

"Ok. Samantha is brave enough to take one guy on. She does and then tries to get away when she bumps into our second guy. Unable to take him on, maybe he has a gun, or maybe our wounded suspect has her backed into a corner between them, she is forced to go with them. No footprints would indicate that our uninjured assailant picked her up and carried her to his car. Then how come we haven't found the second guy or the weapon?" The Chief wondered. Olivia was about to answer that when her phone rang.

"Benson," she answered. It was a brief call and she hung up only moments after she answered.

"We've got a floater they just fished out of the river. He has a large stab wound to his stomach. The guys at the two-seven thought we'd be interested," she said.

"Meet them at the morgue?" Fin asked.

"Take Rollins with you," Olivia nodded. Fin nodded and grabbed his coat; the blonde quickly did the same. They left and Dodds turned to the remainder of the team.

"All right so we may have a lead on this guy. How do they tie into Boze and where is he?" He wanted to know.

"We alerted Amtrak, the airports, and the bus stations. We also alerted the toll barriers. No one has seen him. I sent some unis to sit on his mom's place in case he shows up there," Olivia explained.

"Bases covered. Is this guy really that sneaky? Is he working with the two guys that took his daughter?" The Chief questioned.

"That we don't know. I think that if they were working together, we'd have some evidence of it. We dumped Boze's cell phone and home phone records and I checked his bank accounts. The guy is broke, in debt up to his eyeballs to the bank. I called his employer and they say that he asked for a cash advance on his last paycheck. The only calls he makes are to his mother, his boss, and his lawyer. So if he's got a bookie, he's using a different phone for communication," Carisi spoke up.

"So he probably didn't pay those guys to help him. What if kidnapping her was a way to get him to pay back some of his debt? I mean you don't have to place bets via phone," Dodds pointed out.

"True. I've got calls into some of my CI's and I'm hoping someone knows something. If not, Organized Crime and Fraud are getting me lists of known loan sharks in the area around Boze's apartment," Nick said.

"Well it seems you have everything under control. Keep me in the loop. We have a press conference at three pm. I'm going to bring the Amber Alert to people's attention again and see if anything shakes loose," the Chief informed them. He then turned and left.

"Are we going to have to deal with him on every case?" Nick asked once he was out of earshot.

"God, I hope not. I have no idea why he has it in for this unit," Olivia heaved a sigh.


	4. Chapter 4

Down at the morgue, Melinda was chatting with Detectives Lupo and Bernard from the twenty-seventh precinct when Fin and Rollins walked in. Fin broke into the conversation with the introduction of Rollins and they all exchanged hellos.

"Ordinarily we'd let our ME handle this but seeing as he may have something to do with your case, we figured that Miss Melinda would want to have a look," Bernard explained.

"That and our ME had a five car pileup involving a few pedestrians to deal with," Lupo offered. Rollins made a face and Melinda turned their attention to the body at hand.

"So our guy bled out from the wound to the stomach, though he has a nasty gash on his arm, probably from the fall into the river though," she said.

"Hold up. How do we know this is our guy anyway? No offense guys, but floaters in the river aren't exactly headline news," Fin commented considering just how often they had to deal with them.

"True but it's what we found on him that makes it a little more interesting," Bernard grabbed one of the evidence bags from the nearby table and handed it to Fin.

"That's your missing girl right?" He asked as both Fin and Rollins looked at the water logged photo.

"Could be. Where'd you find the picture?" Fin wanted to know.

"Inside jacket pocket. It was the only thing on him. Seems his buddy took his wallet and ID," Lupo explained.

"I'm waiting for the Lab to pick up the evidence so they can enhance the picture but since this is what we've got, I'd say run with it," Melinda chimed in.

"Ok, so what about the wound? We found blood all over the scene," Rollins was confused at how such a tiny hole would cause so much blood to be on the floor.

"I'm having his blood typed now and having the DNA run to see if they match our dead guy and the scene. As far as the wound, a blade about three inches long and serrated on one side went in and my guess is that he pulled it out, leaving the blood at the scene. Now the only way this knife goes into a body up to the hilt like that is by a large amount of force. The girl wouldn't have had the upper body strength to do it on her own," the coroner said.

"What about an eight year old with an orange belt in Tae Kwon Do?" Fin asked. Melinda looked at him and thought about it for a few moments.

"It's possible but I'm still not sure how she would have done it. She'd have to disarm him and get it away from him before making her move. Otherwise, I'm not sure how she could have stabbed him," she said.

"You have to understand, her mother has a restraining order out on her ex-husband. She took her daughter to self-defense classes. When I talked to the mom she was afraid of her ex and even though she didn't say it, my guess is that there was more than one reason for it," Rollins spoke up. She'd seen how jittery Sherry had been and how she had to know something more about her and her husband's relationship but was refusing to speak it out loud.

"Self-preservation at all costs? Maybe she does have enough strength or maybe I need to examine the wound more carefully," Melinda had a look on her face that told everyone she was having an idea. She went back to the wound tract and looked at it for several minutes.

"Let me get back to you about that. Samantha may have inflicted a wound but my guess is that our second helper might have finished the job," she said.

"That means we have a murdering psychopath holding an eight year old," Fin gave her a look.

"Not a pleasant prospect," Melinda nodded. The detectives heaved a collective sigh.

"You guys need anything, you let us know ok?" Lupo spoke up.

"Oh will do. Thanks for handing this one over. If it turns out that it's not our guy, we'll let you know," Fin nodded. With that the detectives from the two-seven departed and Fin and Rollins said goodbye to Melinda before heading back to the precinct.

At the precinct, Olivia was wishing some evidence would come in before Chief Dodds held his press conference. She understood the need to let a wider audience know of the Amber Alert but she worried that it might only make it worse for Samantha if she was alive. Her cell phone rang and she picked it up without looking.

"Benson,"

"Stabler," there was a slight chuckle on the other end of the phone.

"Hey El. What's up?" She asked, glad to hear his voice.

"We still on for dinner tonight?" He wanted to know; knowing all too well how plans got changed at the precinct.

"I'm having my doubts. We ran into something pretty ugly today," Olivia heaved a sigh.

"Say no more. Maybe I'll swing by the precinct and make sure you had some food today. Lucy has Noah, I'm assuming," Elliot said.

"She does but she's dropping him off at the precinct at five because she's got some personal things to deal with," she explained.

"That girl is a saint. Why don't I swing by at five and I'll handle the little tyke while you work?" He asked.

"It's your one night off. I can't ask you to do that," she said.

"You didn't, I offered. Besides it'll give me a chance to see two of my favorite people," Olivia could tell he was smiling on the other end simply by his tone.

"All right then. See you at five," she smiled to herself.

"Sounds like a plan. Love you," with that the phone call ended. Olivia's eyes went wide at his last statement. Had she heard him right? What about trying to work out some sort of friendship? Maybe it was a slip of the tongue. He was probably in the habit from talking with his kids; they'd been rebuilding their relationships at the same time at the former partners had been. What if it wasn't a slip? She'd be lying if she said that when they were working together, she'd hadn't had unclean thoughts about him. They'd always played the "he's married and I'm damaged goods" cards and they both knew that crossing that last line was something they both couldn't do. Now however there was nothing to hold them back except their own hang-ups; his getting sober and her dealing with the aftermath of her recent kidnappings. Shaking her head, she left the comfort of her office to speak with Fin and Rollins as they walked into the bullpen.


	5. Chapter 5

"Samantha Boze is only eight years old. We're looking for anyone with any information about her whereabouts to contact the Manhattan Special Victims Unit at the number on the bottom of your screens. It is imperative that we find her. Her mother is in the hospital recovering from an illness and has asked me to spread word of her disappearance. We are working to find her father, Stephen Boze, who I've been told is hunting and is out of cell phone range. Samantha was last seen at her house by a neighbor," Chief Dodds spoke from the podium while a picture of Samantha was being broadcast along with the precinct's number

"She's been missing for almost twenty four hours and we're broadcasting this to the tri-state area. Please call us with her whereabouts or her father's so that we can reunite this family. We need your help and so does little Samantha," he finished the broadcast, which had been closed to the media. He was hoping that someone would call in soon and that the lie about her father would make it easier to find him too. Bare minimum Stephen Boze was to be arrested and charged with violating the restraining order and assault. With him off the streets, they may be able to get a lead on Samantha.

"Here it comes," Fin started from his desk inside the precinct.

"What?" Rollins asked. She'd barely gotten the word out of her mouth when the phones started ringing off the hook.

"That," Olivia said. She stood in the doorway to her office watching as everyone was picking up their phones and jotting down possible leads. She wondered how long it would take for them to get something legit. Sometimes these things did nothing but make the local crackpots call in with false information.

"I got a call from someone claiming she was abducted by aliens," Nick said after he hung up.

"Where's Munch when you need him?" Olivia sighed.

"I got another one saying that he saw her buying cigarettes at a bodega," Rollins shook her head. Olivia cocked an eyebrow before he headed back to her phone as it rang.

"This is Sergeant Benson," she answered.

"I saw the girl you're looking for in Central Park just an hour ago," the man on the other end of the line said.

"Central Park? Ok, what side of the park?" She asked.

"Near Central Park West and eighty-sixth," he said.

"Got it. What's your name?" Olivia wanted to know. She never found out as the man hung up. She quickly left the room and handed the tip off to some uniforms.

"Anyone have anything credible?" She asked an hour later as the phone calls began to wane.

"Nothing yet. Mostly what I got is crazies," Fin shook his head.

"Me too," Nick chimed in. Olivia heaved a sigh. Her tip hadn't panned out either. No one had seen her anywhere near the park when asked by the uniforms. The others she'd answered were mostly unhelpful and definitely calls from people looking for attention.

"I might have gotten something!" Rollins shouted as she put her phone on speaker.

"Ma'am, I'm still here. Will you tell my Sergeant what you just told me?" The blonde asked.

"I saw the little girl being hustled out of the basement of my building. I was down there doing wash and my neighbor, Carl Gregg, had her by the shirt collar. He saw me and said his niece was acting up and I just nodded and then I called you," the lady said.

"Where are you and what is your neighbor's name?" Olivia wanted to know.

"I'm on the Lower East Side," she then went on to give her full address.

"Why did you not believe him that it was his niece?" Rollins asked.

"Because the man can't be trust around animals. No one would give him their kid to watch," the lady told them. Olivia swallowed hard as Rollins thanked the woman before ending the call.

"Let's roll out! We've got a credible tip. I want background on this guy, Carl Gregg, Carisi. Radio it to us on our way," she ordered.

"You got Sergeant," Carisi answered as Fin, Rollins, Nick, and Olivia headed out.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some dark stuff in this chapter... High T rating, just so you know. I'm massively paranoid about it so it might be an overstatement but I felt a heads up was necessary.

"Carl Gregg! This is the police! Open the door!" Olivia demanded as she pounded on it. There was no answer and she gave the nod to Fin who swiftly kicked it in. The four fanned out and searched the fifth floor apartment. If Gregg had been there he was gone now.

"The apartment is clear," Olivia radioed down to the teams of officers watching the front and back entrances of the building.

"We've got something in the basement but no girl and no Gregg," some officers radioed in.

"Fin, Rollins, check every inch of the apartment for clues on where they went. Nick, with me," Olivia ordered. Quickly they were back out of the apartment and heading back down to the basement.

"What have you got for me Officer?" She asked as they found the unis.

"The lock on the storage unit belonging to the apartment of our suspect – it's been busted off," Officer Reynolds pointed out.

"You guys touch this?" Nick wondered.

"No sir. We saw this and radioed for you. Figured you'd want the tech guys to fingerprint it," Reynolds explained.

"Good call. Get CSU down here," Olivia nodded before taking a gloved hand to the door frame. She was able to pull it open as the metal bracket that kept the door locked had been damaged too and now the door swung open easily.

"What's in there?" Nick asked as she flicked on her flashlight.

"Boxes. I'm not seeing anything that someone would break the lock for," she shrugged.

"Maybe it's what is inside the boxes that he wanted," Nick said.

"Why break the lock?" Reynolds wondered.

"Maybe he left the key upstairs. Or maybe he figured he wasn't coming back so why be careful?" His partner, Officer Hancock, suggested.

"The latter is a real possibility," Olivia murmured, still reading the labels on the boxes and looking for anything out of the ordinary.

"What do you need me for?" CSU tech Abrams wanted to know.

"I want the lock and the door dusted for prints. Also, I want all these boxes searched. Gregg came down here for a reason," Olivia told him.

"No problem. Maybe we'll get something useful," Abrams smiled and got to work. The radio crackled to life and they heard Fin say,

"You better get up here quick." With that Olivia and Nick were off to find out what their colleagues found in the apartment. Hopping in the elevator, they rode up to the fifth floor and headed down the hallway. The other have of the CSU team had the door already cordoned off and was examining everything.

"How bad is it?" Olivia asked Fin.

"Found a stash of kiddie porn under the bed which is bad enough but when we examined the second bedroom a little more closely…" he just pointed into the room. Olivia walked in and immediately noticed the CSU techs holding handcuffs in their hands that were attached to the bed. Her mind flashed back to William Lewis and she swallowed hard.

"These were hidden behind the frame and they have some blood and skin cells on them. There's blood on the sheets beneath the blanket and I'm sending it to the lab," CSU tech Sekhon shook his head. He was relatively new and having trouble dealing with what he was seeing, although he felt slightly better when he saw Olivia cover her mouth with her hand. She was undoubtedly trying to stop the bile rising in her throat as he was doing the same.

"How much blood?" She wanted to know.

"Enough…" he trailed off, pointing to the space on the bed, "I'm collecting samples and hopefully we can narrow things down for you," he finished. Olivia nodded. Then she heard Rollins shout from the other room.

"What is it?" She heard Nick ask as she exited the bedroom and entered the living room.

"That was Melinda. She just confirmed her suspicions from earlier. Samantha may have stabbed our dead guy but his partner definitely finished him off. There were signs that the knife went in in almost the exact same spot as the first wound," Amanda answered.

"So our guy is that meticulous but then he leaves his apartment in a rush and breaks the lock on his storage unit?" Fin raised an eyebrow.

"He had no choice but to rush because he was afraid his neighbor would rat on him. With his dying partner, he just stabbed him and dumped the body, probably told him that they were heading to the hospital and instead he ends up in the river," Nick said.

"Any idea on where this monster is heading?" Olivia wanted to know.

"Nothing yet. Carisi said he found no other properties under Gregg's name but he put out an APB on his car, a brown two thousand and five Toyota sedan," Fin told them.

"We need to find Stephen Boze. He's the only way we're going to tie this all together. No way that Samantha's kidnapping and Sherry's assault aren't related. He hired these two guys to kidnap her and my guess is that he had no idea Gregg was a pedophile," Olivia said.

"That's why I put Carisi on trying to find a connection between the two. We missed something but now we have more to go on," Fin explained.

"Good. Let's…" she didn't get the words out of her mouth as she heard the unmistakable sound of someone retching.

"I'm on it," Fin said. He headed toward the noise and saw the new CSU tech losing his lunch out of the window.

"Find something else?" He asked, handing the guy a tissue to wipe his mouth off. Sekhon handed him the black light he used and the detective gave him a look but dutifully went to the bed that the tech was pointing to. He soon realized the reason for the new tech's loss of appetite. He set down the black light in Sekhon's kit and headed back into the living room.

"We need to catch this guy," he said, a determined look on his face.

"Is he going to be ok?" Rollins asked.

"Probably not and neither will I. That bed is covered in fluids," Fin shook his head. Nick heaved a sigh and placed his right hand on the back of his head, letting a loud breath out.

"He could have used the same spot for his kiddie porn fantasies," Rollins said, knowing they all hoped the same thing rather than the alternative that Samantha had been through an even more horrific ordeal.

"Let's head back to the precinct. We need to hope that some more leads come in," Olivia told them.

Back at the precinct, Carisi was digging into the records, trying to find something, anything that tied Stephen Boze to Carl Gregg but he was coming up empty. He banged his fist on the desk and swore under his breath.

"Tough case?" A now familiar voice asked as the person exited Olivia's office.

"You could say that," Carisi forcefully blew air out of his lungs through his lips.

"Give me some generalizations. Maybe I can help," Elliot offered as he plunked himself down in Nick's chair. Carisi nodded and quickly brought him sort of up to speed.

"Ah I see. Well I hate to admit it but maybe your assaulter met the kidnapper in rehab. You said that Sherry seemed to be hiding something. Maybe they drank a lot or maybe they had a drug problem on top of their sexual proclivities," Elliot said.

"Yeah well those sessions are confidential. How would I get that information?" Carisi gave him a look.

"Check the hospital records. If they were ever admitted for an overdose or to get their stomach pumped, you could be onto something," the elder former detective suggested.

"Good call. It's the only thing I have left. Otherwise, it's the "strangers on a train" theory," the younger man said.


	7. Chapter 7

"There's the rest of the gang," Elliot smiled slightly as the detectives filed back into the precinct.

"All right in ten minutes, I want to go over what we have. Samantha is still missing and we need to find her," Olivia heaved out a breath and motioned for Elliot to join her in her office.

"Rough case huh?" He asked closing the door behind him. She had chosen to sit behind her desk and he leaned forward onto the chairs in front of her desk.

"Were there ever any that weren't?" She wondered.

"Point. Why don't I take Noah to your place and keep an eye on the little guy while you enjoy the Chinese food I put in the fridge?" Elliot offered.

"Not sure I'm in the mood to eat right now," Olivia shook her head.

"Well you need to eat sometime. Have to keep your strength up. I won't get in the way. You want to say goodnight to Noah before we run away?" He wanted to know.

"Of course," she smiled slightly and got up, heading over to the stroller. Scooping up the still awake baby, she spoke to him softly.

"Who's momma's big man? Still all smiles. You have no idea how much momma appreciates your smile," she leaned in and gave him a kiss. He cooed and gave her a bigger smile.

"Well at least he seems to know who I am," admitting out loud that she had not been home as much as she would have liked.

"Of course he does. Now, we're going to head home and check out some Sports Center. Have to see if you're a T-ball man or a football man," Elliot chuckled.

"Thanks so much for doing this El," Olivia smiled.

"No trouble at all. You lucked out. He's a very good baby. We just can't say it too loudly or it'll go to his head," he smirked as he took Noah back and put him in the stroller. Suddenly, he found Olivia's arms around his neck, her head buried on his shoulder. In all the years he'd known her, she'd never been the touchy feely type. He didn't let the thought stop him from putting his arms around her and pulling her tight.

"Hey, you'll find the poor girl, you'll catch the bad guy, and you'll be home in time for dinner tomorrow," Elliot reassured her. She pulled back and gave him a smirk.

"Was there ever any doubt?" She teased.

"Of course not," he smirked too and leaned in, giving her a quick peck on the cheek, whispering as he did so,

"Go get 'em tiger." Then he pulled away and grabbed the stroller before heading out of the office and out of the bull pen.

"We're ready for you," Carisi poked his head in after Elliot left.

"Good," she nodded and she followed him out of the door and over to the board where Nick and Rollins were waiting for Fin to get off of his phone.

"What have we got?" Olivia asked.

"So our perp, Carl Gregg, helped our dead guy, who Melinda just ID'ed as Gene Sanderson, kidnap Samantha Boze. She also sent over the enhanced photo; it's definitely Samantha. Anyway, it turns out that Gregg and Sanderson did a stint in Fishkill together as cellmates. Gregg had beat up his neighbor for allegedly stealing his mail and Sanderson assaulted his girlfriend," Carisi started.

"All righty so two guys you aren't afraid to use their fists but nothing that indicates they'd want to help someone like Stephen Boze kidnap his kid," Olivia pointed out.

"True but here is where things get interesting. Sherry took Stephen to family court to sue for full custody of Samantha not too long ago. Stephen's attorney managed to convince the judge that with counselling his client would be a better father. The judge ordered mandatory anger management along with supervised visits for Stephen. The restraining order was issued, so all the visits often took place at Stephen's mom's apartment with Sherry not present. Stephen wasn't supposed to know where they lived and from what I can gather from the social worker's notes, Samantha would not tell her father where they moved. This girl wasn't afraid of him but she more than once told the social worker that she wished she didn't have to visit him," Carisi explained.

"Ok so how does this tie into anything with our two kidnappers?" She wanted to know.

"Elliot gave me an idea and I ran with it. Seems Sanderson and Gregg were ordered by the court to complete anger management once they were released from prison," he said.

"So they met at anger management," Olivia nodded.

"That's the only connection I can find," Carisi admitted. Fin finally got off of his phone and he gave Olivia a look.

"What is it?" She wanted to know.

"Some of those boxes in the storage unit were labelled to seem like decorations when in fact it was more kiddie porn and some adult porn. Our guy is an addict," Fin said.

"No wonder this guy beat his neighbor up over his mail," Rollins chimed in.

"Why would our guy mix both kinds? I mean usually if they like one, they don't like the other, right?" Carisi was confused.

"It's not typical but if the pictures are people who do not look their age our perp might not be able to tell the difference or could be he was just holding them for a friend," Nick said.

"True. If he's eyeball deep in it, you know he knows more pervs who are just as bad with all the exchanging these guys usually do," Fin pointed out.

"Ok, so we don't have anything that would seem to indicate where Gregg was headed but we do have more on just whom we're dealing with. Ideas?" Olivia asked.

"I hate to be morbid but if this guy dumped his partner in the river, what makes us think that he hasn't harmed Samantha? I mean he knows we're onto him. She's the only witness to what he did to her," Rollins spoke up.

"Then why didn't he kill her and leave her at the apartment?" Nick asked.

"Because he's got a hostage. It's his only bargaining chip," Olivia said.

"You think he'll make contact or try to disappear?" Rollins wondered.

"We've got an alert out on his car and I had the officers alert the toll booths, Amtrak, and the airports. He's got nowhere to go if he tries to leave the city so he has to be here somewhere," Olivia heaved a sigh. They weren't getting anywhere fast until her cell phone rang.

"Sergeant Benson, we believe your suspect just arrived here at his mom's," the officer on the other end of the line.

"Keep him in sight but do not engage. If he tries to leave before we get there, follow him," Benson ordered.

"Yes ma'am," with that the call was over and the team was on the move.


	8. Chapter 8

"Stephen what are you doing here?" His mother, Sophia, asked as she opened her apartment door.

"I need help Ma," he said, pushing his way inside.

"You're all over the news and the TV. Don't you think that there are police out front?" Sophia demanded.

"I have nowhere else to go," Boze told her.

"Well you can't stay here. You beat up Sherry and Samantha is missing! What did you do to my grandbaby?" She wanted to know.

"Nothing. She's with a few friends of mine. I'm going to get her when things calm down but I need a place to crash tonight and a different car," he said.

"You're not sleeping here and you're not taking my car," Mrs. Boze said sternly.

"Ma please!" He begged.

"I'm not getting involved! You practically killed Sherry. You're going to jail for a long time and I'll not be sitting in the cell next to you!" Sophia was practically shouting now.

"You'll disturb the neighbors! I don't need the cops on me," Stephen said.

"I'll disturb whoever I damn well want to!" Sophia raised her voice again. Their argument continued to grow louder and down in the radio car the officers received the call.

"Ten-thirty-three, domestic, at your location, apartment three B," the dispatcher said.

"Ten-four, SVU ordered us to stay put," Officer Reynolds responded.

"Negative ten-ten, shots fired," the dispatcher responded.

"Ten-four!" Reynolds and his partner, Hancock, leapt from their vehicle and headed inside the building.

"Ten-thirteen, officers requiring assistance at surveillance location, shots fired, SWAT en route," the dispatcher announced over the radio inside Olivia's car.

"Damn," she swore as Fin responded that they were already on their way and to call for an ambulance.

"Ten-four," the dispatcher responded, just as they pulled up to the building, sirens and lights blaring. Olivia drew her weapon upon hopping out of the car; Fin was in front her with Rollins and Nick bringing up the rear from their car. They reached the apartment in question to find Reynolds and Hancock outside, bullet holes in the door.

"He tried to get us ma'am," Reynolds said quietly while motioning with his eyes, from his spot next to the door, up against the left doorframe.

"You guys all right?" Olivia asked just as quietly, as she moved next to Reynolds, with Fin right behind her.

"We're good. We cleared the neighboring apartments," Hancock explained, from the right doorframe; Nick and Amanda took up positions next to him. She nodded and then announced,

"Stephen Boze, this is Sergeant Benson from Manhattan SVU. Is anybody hurt in there?"

"Look what you made me do!" The response was odd considering the front door to the apartment was closed.

"We're coming in if you don't open this door and I can't guarantee anyone's safety once we break down the door. Is everyone in there all right?" Olivia tried again. The response was another bullet through the door.

"We'd better wait for SWAT," Rollins swallowed hard.

"Who is in there anyway?" Olivia asked Reynolds.

"Boze and his mom, as far as we can figure. Boze came alone," he replied. The thought immediately ran through Olivia's head that their perp has shot his mother.

"Stephen, did you shoot someone? We know that you beat up Sherry and we know that Samantha is missing. Tell us your side of the story before anyone else gets hurt," she spoke up again. She knew that SWAT was only moments behind; their heavy footsteps could be heard in the stairwell.

"You're just going to lock me up again!" He shouted.

"Right now Samantha's locked up somewhere and I'm sure she doesn't want to be," Olivia told him.

"She's safe," Boze said.

"I wouldn't be so sure. The only way to guarantee she's safe is if you tell me where she is," the Sergeant tried to reason with him as Fin pointed out that SWAT was now on the floor. It would be their show in about thirty seconds as the elder detective filled them in.

"Safe with you? She wasn't so safe with my wife!" Boze was not being helpful.

"Why wasn't she safe with Sherry? We were in their home. It was lovely and well kept. Samantha's grades were good and the social worker didn't see any problems," Olivia said.

"That social worker was keeping me from my baby! Sam hates me!" Boze was just escalating and the SWAT team leader tapped Olivia on the shoulder. Her time was up. The cameraman stuck the tiny flexible camera beneath the door.

"We've got an elderly woman down and bleeding. Suspect has a thirty-eight caliber revolver," he said. The SWAT team leader counted the bullet holes in the door and nodded. The cameraman pulled out and the three men behind the team leader grabbed their shields while the two next to him prepped the battering ram. The team leader's fingers counted down from three… two… one…

The door burst open and the men with the shields charged forward. Boze dropped his weapon and the SWAT second in command yelled for him to drop to his knees, which he did. They quickly cuffed him and then turned their attention to Sophia. She was not responsive; the bullet wound to her stomach had been bleeding for a while.

"We need a medic!" The SWAT team leader shouted into his radio.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter touches on some possibly uncomfortable things so just be aware.

"You've got a lot to answer for, Stephen," Olivia told him as she and Fin were sweating him in interrogation. Nick and Amanda were down at the hospital, waiting to see if Sophia could be saved.

"She's right. We've got you for violating a restraining order, attempted murder, kidnapping, conspiracy, and at least one murder charge," Fin smirked from across the table.

"Murder? I didn't kill anybody!" Boze's voice elevated.

"Well you didn't directly kill anyone. Although I'm sure Gene Sanderson would beg to differ," Olivia said.

"What are you talking about?" Boze demanded.

"See Gene died during the commission of the kidnapping and attempted murder, so that guarantees you a murder charge. Not to mention another one if your mom dies? Why did she have to get shot Stephen? What did she do to you?" Fin wanted to know.

"I bet we already know what she did. She probably told him how stupid he was for doing that to Sherry and how upset she was that he kidnapped her granddaughter. She probably told him that she wasn't going to spend her twilight years in jail for him, seeing as he's a sorry excuse of a human being, especially since he let a pedophile kidnap his daughter," the bomb dropped, Olivia just sat back and waited for a response.

"You know what? I bet that's exactly what she said. You know pedophiles. Once people find out you're one, they assume all your friends are. But you already knew that Carl Gregg was a sicko, didn't you?" Fin laid it on.

"What are you talking about? I'm not a pedophile!" Boze screamed.

"Yeah we find that hard to believe considering what we found at Gregg's apartment," Olivia slid a folder over to the suspect and he opened it. He immediately slammed it shut.

"That's just a sample of the porn we found at Gregg's place. Not to mention the bed and the chains," she continued. Boze looked like he was going to be sick when there was a knock on the door. Fin got up to answer it. Whatever was going on, he ducked out of the room, leaving Olivia and the perp alone.

"You say that Sam hates you. That's because you couldn't help but touch her. You couldn't help crawling into her bed at night, telling her that all kids her age play games with their fathers in their beds. That's why Sherry got a restraining order didn't she? Samantha finally admitted to her mother that you were doing things to her and Sherry did the first thing she could think of and that was take you to court. The only thing I can't figure out is why she didn't tell the family court judge what was going on. He would have remanded you or at minimum sent the allegation to the DA. Of course, I suppose that won't matter once you get to Rikers and they find out you've been charged with assaulting a minor. They'll just see pedophile. You know the guys in Rikers, and any other prison they send you to; they don't like your kind. You'll find that out the hard way I imagine," she was laying it on, wondering why he hadn't cracked yet.

"Liv, we got some good news. His mom pulled through surgery. She's not out of the woods yet but we can still add that extra attempted murder charge on," Fin came back into the room, telling them what Carisi had said out in the hallway.

"Well that is good news. She can tell us all about her boy's bad habits when she wakes up," Olivia smirked.

"I'm not a pedophile! I wouldn't touch my daughter like that!" Boze shouted.

"Then why did you let Gregg take her? Why were you kidnapping her from her mother? Why did Sherry get a restraining order? Where is Samantha?" Fin demanded.

"I want a lawyer!" Just like that, the conversation was over. Liv shook her head and she and Fin left the room.

"Why wouldn't he tell us where Samantha is? You showed him the pictures, you called him a pedophile, and he just sat there," Carisi just shook his head in disbelief.

"Get on the phone to Rollins. I want Sherry talked to again. He clammed up because of something we said. He's afraid to implicate himself in something we haven't charged him with. Is forensics fingerprinting all of the porn we found?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah but it's going to take a while. The guy had hundreds of images," Carisi said.

"Have them test the adult porn for Boze's fingerprints. Maybe he liked assaulting his wife instead of his kid. He might have thought that Gregg liked adult porn too, not realizing that Gregg was just trying to get to his daughter," the sergeant ordered.

"On it," Carisi nodded before heading back to his desk. Fin gave Olivia a look and he could tell her mind was churning, trying to find answers.

"So I hear you guys arrested someone," Barba announced his presence, snapping both detectives from their thoughts.

"A little late at night for you to be working isn't it?" Fin asked, looking him up and down, noting that the DA was in a cleanly pressed tuxedo.

"We did but he clammed up. His daughter is in trouble and he clammed up," Olivia shook her head at her colleague's comment and the situation in general.

"You've got him dead to rights and he refuses to tell you? Maybe he's realizing he doesn't know if the guy he trusted with his daughter would actually bring her to where they agreed," Barba pointed out.

"Could be or it could be that this guy is as slimy as we think he is and he's out to save his own skin," Olivia clenched her fists.

"Well book him on what we can charge him with and then we'll worry about just how slimy he is when I speak to him and his court appointed attorney tomorrow morning," Barba nodded.

"What about Samantha? She's spending another night with a pedophile," Olivia wanted to know.

"Unless you have information to act on, we're stuck. I don't want anything messing up putting Boze and Gregg away for life. His attorney will try anything to get any of the charges reduced unless we get a really green one," the DA reminded them. With that he turned and headed out of the squad.

"Book him. I'm going to my office," Olivia heaved a sigh.


	10. Chapter 10

About two hours later, Olivia opened her front door and quickly locked it behind her. She had to be back into the precinct by seven am and that was approaching in just over nine hours. She hadn't eaten, she desperately needed a shower, and Elliot was still in the apartment somewhere. Quietly removing her shoes, she moved down the hallway and into the living room. There she found Elliot and Noah asleep on the couch; Sports Center was on the television, with the volume down a little low. Olivia cracked a smile at how peaceful they both looked; Noah sleeping on Elliot's chest underneath his little blanket. She hated to wake them but Elliot needed to get back to his place so he could get to his job on time in the morning.

Carefully, she scooped Noah, up blanket and all, and carried him to his room where the crib was waiting for him. Giving him a kiss goodnight, Olivia laid him down and covered him up. Then just as quiet and careful as she had done before, she slipped out of the room and closed the door, leaving it open only a crack. Back out in the living room, she gently shook Elliot awake. He mumbled something incoherently and then realized that Noah was no longer on his chest. Elliot sprang up and immediately conked his head into Olivia's. She tumbled backwards onto the floor, landing on top of some of Noah's toys. Letting out a yelp, she quickly clamped her hands over her mouth. The last thing they needed was for Noah to wake up.

"Oh Liv," Elliot was off the couch in a flash, helping her up off the floor. He checked her head for any signs of injury and looked at her in the eyes. Olivia stared into those blue eyes and went a little weak at the knees. It had been a long time since they had gotten that close to one another and it was like she was a teenager all over again. Elliot saw her waver and he scooped her up and moved her to the couch. Olivia immediately blushed, embarrassed at her behavior.

"I knew my head was hard but I didn't think we'd have to take you to the doctor's," Elliot joked, checking her again to make sure she didn't have a concussion.

"Well I haven't eaten since lunch…" she started.

"Liv! I brought you food!" She could tell he was upset but he popped up off the couch and headed for the refrigerator. When he opened it, he laughed.

"Some things never change. No adult food in here," he chuckled.

"I was going to go shopping for myself but then the case kind of had a mind of its own," Olivia admitted.

"How is it that the fridge is full of baby food then?" Elliot gave her a questioning look.

"They were having a sale at the store last weekend and I stocked up," she said.

"Well Social Services won't be happy if they see this. You have to take care of you and Noah, not just Noah," he said, closing the fridge and moving back to the couch.

"I know," Olivia heaved a sigh.

"Hey, there is no shame if you need help. I can run to the store for you…" Elliot started.

"You've already done so much. I can't ask you for that. I need to figure this out. For me. For Noah. It's just me and him and only one of us can count and speak in complete sentences, so I need to be the one to do what is necessary," she told him as he sat down. He frowned slightly and Olivia worried that she had somehow offended him.

"Liv… I…" he started and then stopped. A look that she hadn't seen in a long time crossed his face. There was something he wanted to say but he wasn't sure how to say it. Usually that was not Elliot. He was blunt and rarely ever minced words but the look she was getting now was the look she had seen when he and Kathy had split for a little while.

"El…" this time she started and stopped. There was a lot to say and somehow they were both still emotionally constipated; unable to say what they wanted to.

"I had better get going," he said suddenly, standing up. Olivia quickly stood up and blocked his path.

"We need to talk about this," she said, not sure she'd heard the words correctly, even though she said them. She was definitely tired but she wasn't going to let him escape before she confronted him.

"Talk about…" she didn't let him finish.

"You said something to me not long ago and I want to know if you meant it," the sentence was vague but she wanted to know if it had been a slip of the tongue or if he'd picked up on what she meant. That old Benson/Stabler connection was getting back into a rhythm as of late and this would prove to her one way or the other.

There was a pause. Almost immediately, Olivia resigned herself to the truth. It had been a slip of the tongue. She could feel her heart break in two. Her chest was tight and her breathing became shallow. She was about to scream when suddenly she found her mouth occupied by his and she froze.

He felt her stiffen and he quickly pulled away. It had been a mistake to kiss her. They were still working through their demons. He should have known better. Then just as he was about to move away, she grabbed him and pulled him to her. Their lips met again and this time neither one held back. In that heated moment, the tension that had been building just increased and the feeling in the pit of Olivia's stomach told her that she didn't want to stop.

Suddenly they were on the couch and Elliot was on top of her. Neither one objected to the move despite how fast they were moving until they needed to come up for air. Then Elliot put the brakes on as he leaned on his hands, mere inches from her face.

"Liv… I…" Once again she cut him off.

"It took me a long time to get over the fact that you just cut and run. I thought I had moved on but the truth is – I never did. I was comparing every man I went out with to you," she admitted.

"So how does Cassidy fit into the equation?" He was confused. It wasn't what he wanted to talk about but he couldn't help himself.

"He almost died. I couldn't lose you both. At first, we both really had something and for a while, I was happy. Then Noah came along and we weren't happy. It wasn't fair to Brian but I couldn't let Noah go back into the system. It looked like my chance at being a mom was back and I jumped at it. I can make a difference in Noah's life and I wanted that more than I wanted Brian," the words all just tumbled out. She'd never said that out loud to anyone before but once again she found she could not hide anything from her former partner. Elliot was just smiling and he leaned down, his hands moving beneath her back, so he could pull her up into the sitting position as he leaned back on his heels.

"I meant what I said. I love you. I love Noah," he admitted.

"I love you too," there she had said it. It was like the wind had knocked her breath away but the truth was now out in the open. Elliot's lips soon found hers in a gentle kiss. What they were both feeling however was no longer gentle and certainly not slow moving. Elliot climbed off of her and couch before scooping her up.

"What are you doing?" She asked; he knew she could walk, as he started to make his way to her bedroom.

"What I should have done years ago," he smirked before he kissed her, this time hard, the need for something more making itself evident as he set her down before closing the door. They knew that they needed to be quiet for Noah's sake despite the fact that Elliot was willing to do anything to get her out of her clothes and onto the bed.

"I… I'moutofpractice," it all rushed out at once and she blushed as Elliot then remembered her ordeal that was not in the so distant past.

"We'll go as far as you want. You say "no" and we stop. I've waited almost seventeen years. I can wait a little while longer," he smiled.


	11. Chapter 11

Olivia strolled into the office late. Rollins raised an eyebrow at Fin and he shrugged. It was odd for her but the case was getting to everyone, she probably wasn't sleeping well. Still the elder detective got up from his desk and headed into her office.

"Boze and his attorney are meeting with Barba in an hour in interrogation," Fin said without announcing himself.

"Excellent. Maybe we'll get somewhere. Anything come in overnight?" Olivia asked, not looking up from taking things out of her purse and booting up her computer.

"Nothing. Either this guy is just that good or lucky," Fin shook his head.

"What about forensics? They haven't figured out the fingerprints yet?" She looked up, concerned.

"Nope. They're sifting through but so far they've found multiple sets of prints. We might have busted up a pornography ring in the middle of this whole thing," he admitted.

"Well that's a small victory but not enough to save Samantha. What about Sherry?" Olivia wanted to know.

"She finally broke down when Rollins went back to her. Sherry says that as far as she knows, her husband didn't touch Samantha. The reason she filed the restraining order was because her husband is a drunk. He liked to rape her after he got drunk. He never beat her up to the point of needing the hospital which is why we couldn't find a record of it," Fin explained.

"This guy makes me sick," Olivia shook her head.

"Yeah definitely a winner," Fin said with a frown.

"All right. Well I guess we'll see what he has to say then," she said. He nodded and then turned around.

"Good morning," Barba said.

"Somebody is early. Late night and an early morning," Olivia smirked.

"Well you know," he waggled his eyebrows.

"You want me to catch you up?" She asked.

"Yes because there is nothing I like more than nailing these sick bastards with my morning coffee," he nodded.

"Well I hope you skipped the bagel. It might hurt coming back up when I tell you what we've got," Olivia gave him a look of disgust.

"Oh joy," Barba said.

**WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW**

"Ok so tell me why I should give your client anything? He almost killed his wife, who was trying to get divorce proceedings started. He almost killed his mother, who refused to harbor him. He had his daughter kidnapped by a pedophile who killed his partner. Right now his eight year old daughter is somewhere in this city with this pedophile. Did I miss something counselor?" Barba asked.

"My client wants some consideration," the defense attorney, Kyle Powder, said.

"Consideration? He's getting life," Barba said.

"Two attempted murders don't equal life," Powder told him.

"Well see the murder of Gene Sanderson occurred in the commission of a felony, kidnapping. He's going away for that too. Did I forget to mention it?" Barba gave him a look.

"All right what do you want?" Powder asked.

"What I want to know is where Samantha is. She's been with Carl Gregg for almost forty-eight hours. He's a pedophile. I can only imagine what has happened to her," Barba said.

"If he tells you want he knows, you'll agree to concurrent sentences, twenty-five to life?" Powder wanted to know. It was a stretch but it might be the only way to find Samantha.

"He's not going to do that is he? This animal should never get out of prison," Rollins said, from the other side of the one way glass.

"If it means getting Samantha back, I'll make sure I'm at his first parole hearing," Olivia told her.

"Thirty-five to life is as low as I'm willing to go," Barba told him. Powder looked at his client and Boze heaved a sigh.

"Done," the defense attorney said.

"Where is Samantha?" Barba asked again.

"We were supposed to meet up at Gene's storage locker. We'd do the exchange there," Boze admitted.

"Exchange?" Barba gave him a questioning look.

"I promised them three thousand dollars if they helped me get Sam," Boze clarified.

"Gregg killed Sanderson for fifteen hundred bucks?" The ADA looked at him confused.

"Hey, that was never part of the deal. I didn't know he was going to do that. I had no idea he was a pedophile either," Boze tried to explain his poor behavior.

"But the detectives told you he was a pedophile last night," Barba couldn't believe it.

"We'll give you the address of the storage unit," Powder said.


	12. Chapter 12

The team rolled up on the storage facility with SWAT shortly behind. The owner opened the gate and let the police through, pointing the way to the unit in question. They had called him beforehand and he had said he hadn't seen Carl Gregg that day but he'd seen him the day before. Olivia hoped that if Samantha was there that she was alive and had been unharmed; the little voice in the back of her head that it was wishful thinking. The poor girl had either been assaulted or killed, when the neighbor who was trying to be helpful called it in.

Fin looked over to her as she drove the car minus the blaring siren. Just because the owner hadn't seen him, didn't mean that Gregg wasn't still there. This case had been weighing heavy on everybody but he knew that Olivia was burying what was going on with her. He knew deep down that this job was getting to her more than she was willing to admit. It was the only thing she knew how to do and she was damn good at it but he wondered how much longer she could do it. He wondered how much longer he could do it and he hadn't lived through what she had.

Olivia pulled the car up to the unit, Nick pulling his car just past hers, effectively blocking the door. They quickly killed the engines and got out, not closing the doors of the car. SWAT moved in from the side, looking for a space to put a camera in. There wasn't one, so the second man in line grabbed the bolt cutters in his hands tighter and cut the lock off.

"Carl Gregg this is the NYPD! We have a warrant!" They flung the large rolling garage door open. Olivia's heart sunk as they charged in.

"Clear!" The SWAT team leader announced. There were only small stacks of boxes; no room to hide an adult behind.

"Damn it!" She swore.

"Better get CSU in here," Fin said as Amanda peered around the packaging and boxes. She pulled open the flaps of a nearby cardboard box and gagged.

"There's more porn in here," she announced.

"Go through every box. There has to be a clue in here somewhere. We have to find her!" Olivia barked. She swiveled around and quickly dialed Barba's number, walking out of the storage locker.

"You find her?" His first words as he answered the phone.

"They aren't here," he could hear the defeat in her voice. Then in the background he heard Nick shouting,

"I got something!" Then he heard the click of the phone as Olivia hung up on him.

"What is it?" The Sergeant asked as she moved back inside the storeroom. He banged on the back wall of the unit and it made an odd noise. The unit was metal and it wasn't insulated, it should have made a metallic noise but instead it sounded like wood. Olivia whirled around and shouted to the SWAT team,

"Get the owner in here!" An officer ran down to the office while the rest of the group started knocking on the odd sounding wall.

"I can't find any spot that seems it open anything," Fin told them as he worked on the far corner.

"Shhh!" Amanda shouted. They all looked at her and she knocked on the wall. They were all surprised when they heard someone feebly knock back.

"I need an axe or a hammer or something!" Amanda ordered. A SWAT team member ran back to their vehicle, while the blonde tried to talk to the person behind the fake wall.

"Samantha is that you? I'm Detective Rollins. I'm here with other police officers. We're here to help you," she said. All she got was another feeble knock. Rollins gave Olivia a nervous look and the Sergeant grabbed the radio off the shoulder of the officer standing next to her.

"This is Sergeant Benson of Manhattan SVU. I need a bus at my location forthwith," she said. Just then the SWAT officer returned with two crowbars and right behind him was the owner with the other officer. He confirmed that the wall was not his and two SWAT members moved onto opposite sides of the knocking, a few feet down.

"We're going to try to get through the wall. Cover your eyes ok?" Rollins told her. There was only one more feeble knock.

"Get her out of there," Benson ordered.


	13. Chapter 13

Olivia slumped her shoulders as she read through the medical report. The doctors had done a full work up of Samantha and the traumas the poor girl had endured. It had been three days since they rescued her but there were no signs of Gregg and no clues as to where he'd magically disappeared to.

"Heavy reading?" A familiar voice from the door asked, as they poked their head through the door opening. The Sergeant had only left the door open enough for her to hear if the phones out in the bullpen rang.

"You have no idea, El," Olivia shook her head as she put the paperwork down.

"Carisi said you'd holed yourself up in your office. Rollins is apparently glued to someone at the hospital and Nick and Fin are out running down a lead. Almost sounds like the squad back when I was here," he said as he pulled his entire body inside the room, still leaving the door open a little.

"Not much has changed, just the personnel," she agreed.

"Well I didn't come here to talk shop. I came here to check up on my best girl," Elliot smirked as he took a seat across from her desk.

"Your best girl? Still working on a nickname?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Yes and I kind of like that one," he admitted.

"I might be able to get used to it," Olivia conceded.

"Well it's a start. Now, how are you? I left quite a few voicemails and even called the awe-inspiring Lucy once or twice," Elliot said.

"I'm seriously considering letting her adopt Noah. He called her momma the other day," it had crushed her to hear it despite Lucy automatically correcting him. The babysitter hadn't brought it up, ignoring it as if it hadn't happened but Olivia had cried herself raw after Lucy left for the evening.

"Oh Liv," Elliot got up from his chair and walked around her desk. He pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead. He could feel his shirt getting wet and he immediately pulled back and wiped away her tears.

"No more ifs, ands, or buts. After this case, you use some of that crazy stockpiled vacation time. Just you and Noah. You don't even need to go anywhere," he said.

"Is that an order Marine?" She asked.

"I'd call it more of a stern warning," he smirked slightly and gently kissed her on her lips.

"I wish you wouldn't do that here," she said when they broke apart.

"Why? Can't let everybody see?" Elliot wanted to know.

"Because then I'm horny the rest of the day," it was not like her to admit such things but he loved it.

"How long until you get off shift?" He asked.

"About an hour," Olivia told him.

"I will be waiting at your place with dinner," Elliot smirked, kissed her quickly again, and then left the room. She narrowed her eyes at him, knowing he did it on purpose. She adjusted her legs as she sat back down in her chair when the phone rang.

"Benson,"

"Sergeant, I'm here with Samantha and her mother, Sherry," it was Rollins. She had stepped out of the room to make the phone call a little more private.

"Anything going wrong, more so than it already has?" Olivia asked.

"Samantha is worried that we're going to charge her in the death of Gene Sanderson," Amanda said.

"Why would we do that?" Olivia was confused. The girl had been protecting herself and besides, she wasn't the one who delivered the final blow.

"She admitted that she stabbed Sanderson in an effort to get away from him. I told her that she had nothing to worry about because he was trying to kidnap her. Instead of looking relieved, she had this blank stare on her face. I think she needs to be evaluated by a shrink," the blonde said.

"I'll see if we can borrow Doctor Skoda," Olivia told her.


	14. Chapter 14

The alarm blared in Olivia's ears and she groaned. Last night had been nice but she was partially regretting the lack of sleep. Rolling over, she smacked the clock, effectively shutting it off. She then rolled over to discover her bedfellow gone and a note on the pillow.

_Liv,_

_Sorry I had to run out on our fantastic evening. Hope you got some sleep although I know I didn't get too much. Early shift today. Call you later._

_El_

Well that explained a lot. Still she missed him not being there when she woke up. They didn't get a chance to spend a lot of time with each other but she was having a thought on how to change all that.

Heaving a sigh, she got up, crossed the bedroom floor and went into the bathroom. Hopefully a hot shower and a good cup of coffee would wake her up. She had promised to give Lucy the day off as the girl had been babysitting for almost two weeks straight. It wasn't fair to Lucy or Noah that she couldn't manage to balance work and home. Despite being in her forties, this was the first time she really had to balance and she'd better get a move on. There wasn't much of a home before Noah and work often took over but things weren't the same anymore.

After the shower and getting dressed, she breezed through the kitchen, turned on the coffee pot and then headed to wake her little Prince Charming.

"Good morning baby boy," she smiled and picked him up. He smiled back and waved his arms.

"Quick bath and then you and I are out of here," she pulled him close and rubbed his nose with hers. Then they made their way to the bathroom and the bathtub.

Not long after she'd gotten Noah out of the bath and into an adorable outfit, her phone rang. Heaving a sigh, she scooped it up as she set Noah down into the stroller.

"Benson,"

"Morning Liv," Fin said.

"Good morning. I'm on my way in. You get anywhere on that lead?" Olivia wanted to know.

"We might have something but that's not why I called. Doctor Skoda told Rollins that he'll be in around eleven after he finishes talking with Samantha. He's seeing her right now at the hospital," Fin explained.

"Oh good. I hope he can give us some insight. I hate to have Rollins sitting in the hospital; we need her in the squad room," she said.

"Agreed and that's why Rollins is hitting the shower at her place before coming in," he told her.

"Good. I'm heading out right now. See you soon," Olivia said.

"Later," with that the call was over and she slipped the phone into her pocket. Then she made sure she had the full diaper bag and that Noah was secure in the stroller.

"Ok kiddo. Off we go to work," she smiled and shut the apartment door, securely locking it, before heading to the elevator. The doors opened and Jimmy from the floor above her was inside. He was a good kid and was currently living with his folks while his mom recovered from back surgery. She had slipped on the stairs and it had been lucky that Olivia had heard the commotion and ran out to investigate.

"Hey Miss B," he smiled as he made sure there was room to get the stroller into the elevator car.

"Morning Jimmy. How's your Mom?" Olivia asked.

"Getting there. It's going to take a while. Thanks for asking," he continued to smile.

"Good for her," Olivia smiled back.

"I hope you don't find this weird but Mom says she still has some baby toys from when I was a kid…" Jimmy started.

"She does?" She was surprised as Jimmy was going part time to community college.

"Something about the minute you give them away that's when you have another kid," he shrugged before continuing, "anyway, if you wanted to look through them and see if Noah wanted any, you could. Since I moved home, we need some more space and I think Mom finally realizes that I'm not a little kid anymore."

"Well thank you. That's very sweet of you. I'll have to see when I'm free. Tell your Mom thanks for me," Olivia said as the door to the elevator opened.

"Sure, no problem," Jimmy smiled and wished her and Noah a good day as he rushed to class. Heading out to the car with a smile on her face, Olivia got Noah into the car seat and then the stroller into the trunk. Her standard issue vehicle looked more like a personal vehicle given the car seat in the back but she smiled at that too.

Later, she was in her office when Doctor Skoda gave a knock on her door. She smiled and invited him in. He took a seat at one of the chairs in front of her desk when Noah made a giggle and a gurgle.

"Take your son to work day?" Skoda asked as he peeked over in the corner of her office at the playpen.

"Sort of. I promised the babysitter a day off," Olivia smiled.

"Well he's a cutie. Can he be trusted with police secrets?" Skoda smirked.

"Of course. He has special clearance," she chuckled.

"Good. Now, I was able to examine Samantha with her mother present, which was actually more helpful than I thought it would be," he admitted.

"Oh?" Olivia wanted to know.

"Well besides recommending a therapist for both of them, I was able to determine why Samantha thinks that she was going to be arrested for the murder of Gene Sanderson. Carl Gregg told her that she was a bad girl and that because she killed his friend Gene she would have to be punished by not only himself but by the police if she ever left his side. Told her that her father knew what had happened and was allowing him to punish her instead of punishing her himself. Needless to say, I don't have to tell you what the punishment was. The rape kit did that," Skoda told her.

"So he made her believe that if she left him that the cops would punish her even more than she'd already been punished by him? Why would she be so willing to believe that? I mean she's a smart girl," Olivia was confused.

"My guess is that her father started with beating her mother and when that got old, he started beating her. Neither came out and said it but that was the vibe that I got. Both seemed hesitant to talk to me and even a little afraid. Despite Samantha taking Tae Kwon Do classes, she was still deeply afraid of her father. If he said that she was to be punished, then she knew that she would be punished – harshly. She had no idea that Gregg was just using her for his own dirty means," the psychiatrist said.

"Will she ever be able to be a kid again?" she asked.

"That's not for me to say. If she gets help, she might be able to move past what has happened but I think any thoughts of being a kid will be long gone. I am sorry," he shook his head. Olivia shook her head too and heaved another sigh.

"Never gets any easier does it?" Skoda asked. He knew the answer. Between the two of them, they had enough experience to last two lifetimes.

"No. Just when you thought you'd seen everything, there is always someone out there that makes things worse. Sometimes I wonder what world I'm helping Noah into," Olivia admitted, knowing the good doctor would just listen.

"All you can do is your best and pray that he'll do his. Let me know if you need me again," the psychiatrist said as he stood.

"Thanks Doctor and I'll give you a call if something comes up," Olivia shook his hand and then followed him out into the squad room.

"Ok boys what have we got with this lead you were chasing?" She asked Nick and Fin.

"Well we figured that Gregg couldn't put up the drywall by himself so we went around to nearby hardware stores to see if anyone recognized him or Samantha. No one could remember seeing Samantha but they did see Carl. He purchased the drywall, screws, a cordless drill, paint, and paint brushes and then headed out into the parking lot. Now, there's no way he managed to get all that stuff into his stolen sedan. We got security footage from the store and saw that he met someone out in the parking lot with a pickup truck. We didn't get the plates but we got a make and model and a description of the guy out to all precincts. With any luck, somebody will see this guy and he could help," Fin explained.

"How did Gregg pay for all of that?" Olivia wanted to know.

"Cash, which we know he didn't have that kind of capital to purchase all that stuff. We still haven't found the sedan either so that makes us think he's got it stashed somewhere other than his storage locker," Nick piped up.

"Like the East River?" She was beginning to wonder if this lead would pan out.

"Or in a parking lot somewhere. We're getting closer," Fin assured her. Olivia nodded and headed back into her office.


	15. Chapter 15

"Would you look at that? I had no idea we were starting them so young," Rollins smirked as she scooped Noah up and out of the playpen. Despite stating previously that she was never having kids, the blonde was great with Noah.

"Next thing you know they'll be wearing badges straight out of the womb," Nick teased. They had walked into Olivia's office for different reasons but seeing Noah was always a bonus.

"Good grief I hope not," the Sergeant chuckled.

"I just stopped in because we might have a lead on the stolen sedan. Parking lot manager called it in when someone other than Gregg drove onto his lot. He let the guy go without saying anything but since we'll have the car we'll probably have prints we can use. Carisi is cancelling the APB and putting out a new one with Gregg in the truck we saw at the hardware store," Nick explained.

"Take Fin and check it out," Olivia nodded and with that Nick was gone.

"That leaves you Rollins. What's up?" She asked as she turned to the blonde who had Noah in her lap in the chair in front of her desk.

"Skoda gave you his report?" Rollins wanted to know.

"Yes. I added a female officer to the security detail outside of Samantha's room. Hopefully that allows you to be here helping with the case. We need to get Gregg off the streets before he finds another victim," Olivia said.

"Agreed. Other than what Fin and Nick have, what do you need me to do?" The blonde asked.

"Carisi was finally able to track down Gregg's mother. She got remarried and changed her name which is why we couldn't find her before," the Sergeant explained.

"Changing her last…" Rollins didn't get a chance to finish.

"She changed her whole name and moved to Connecticut," Olivia said.

"Ok then. You want me and Carisi to get her on the phone or go person to person?" Rollins asked.

"I think a little face to face might be good. We know that Gregg is hiding in the city somewhere and she might know his friends that didn't make the "known associates" list," Olivia explained.

"On it Sergeant," Rollins nodded and stood up, lifting Noah with her.

"I gotta go little man. See you later," she smiled and then handed him over to Liv who smiled back. The Sergeant gave her foster son a hug before setting him on her desk. She then went for the food in the diaper bag.

"Lunch time Noah," the boy seemed to know what she meant because he clapped his hands and smiled.

Meanwhile, Fin and Nick arrived at the parking lot with a squad car pulling up nearby. The uniforms promised to radio them if they saw the man coming back. The forensic team was waiting for the all clear about a block away so as not to arouse suspicion.

The parking lot manager came out to greet them and showed them to the car before heading back to his post. Nick and Fin looked at the exterior of the car and didn't see anything amiss.

"This is definitely the car that we are looking for," Fin said.

"Agreed. You really think that this guy is going to come back for it? For all we know, he went down the street and hailed a cab to Grand Central," Nick wondered.

"If he wanted to get rid of it, he'd have dumped it in the river like Liv said or torched it down by the docks. He's coming back," the older detective nodded. Then as if the patrol car had heard them the radio squawked to life.

"We've got a guy matching the description heading toward the entrance to the lot," Officer Reynolds said.

"Ten-four. Seal the entrance to the lot as soon as he enters," Fin ordered.

"Ten-four," Reynolds responded. Nick and Fin pulled their weapons and moved away from the car. The suspect wouldn't be able to see them as they stood behind the stacked vehicles on the lifts and they were hoping to catch him off guard as he approached the stolen. They heard the siren of the patrol car sound. Their quarry turned and looked at the patrol car and then hurried toward the vehicle. When his hands touched the door handle, Fin and Nick moved from their hiding place.

"Put the bag down and put your hands up!" Nick yelled.

"What did I do?" The man asked as the officers from the patrol car ran toward them, their weapons out.

"Do what he says!" Fin ordered. The man put the bag down and quickly had his hands shoot into the air.

"Ok, all right," he said as Nick began to cuff him.

"What's your name?" Fin asked.

"Russ Highland," the man told him.

"Russ Highland, you're under arrest for possession of stolen property and grand larceny," Nick said before reading him the rest of his rights.

"Get forensics down here on the double and stay with them. We'll take care of this guy," Fin told the officers.

"On it," Reynolds nodded.


	16. Chapter 16

"Not that I mind a ride in the country but why do you suppose the Sergeant sent us to Connecticut? I mean we could have called this lady on the phone," Carisi gave Rollins a look as she pulled the car off the highway as the GPS instructed.

"The woman changed her name and moved out of state before marrying and changing her last name again. No one changes their name that many times if they aren't running from something. Plus, I think Liv wanted us to give the local cops a heads up. She promised to call them and ask for assistance for surveillance and to let them know that Gregg could be on his way here," she told him.

"He may have slipped passed our APB with that truck. Good point. You think part of it could be that maybe Gregg is sicker than we think?" Carisi asked.

"What? You mean sicker than assaulting an eight year old?" The blonde didn't really want to think about it.

"What if she left the city because she knew what a monster he was because he did something to her?" The less experienced detective wondered.

"Typically rapists don't go for anyone outside of their target zone. His mother would be too old," Rollins said.

"Not if she was the one doing the raping," Carisi pointed out.

"More likely it was her first husband. You find him?" She wanted to know.

"Yeah. He died in Attica about ten years ago. When the other inmates found out what he was in for, they decided to handle it themselves. He got shanked in the hallway during the cell block exchange for yard time. Guy who shanked him was already serving a life sentence. Said he killed him because he couldn't tolerate "those kind" of people," he said.

"What and he was ok with murderers like himself?" Rollins was confused.

"Oh he had no problem with murderers; he just didn't like the fact that Matthew Gregg was convicted of kidnapping, rape, and murder of a thirteen year old girl by the name of Sandy Saks," Carisi explained.

"So perhaps it runs in the family. Carl has killed his partner, helped kidnap Samantha, and then he raped her. Would explain why Mom packed her things, changed her name, and left," Rollins turned the car down a side street and shoved it into park.

"It would but she had to notice that her son was going off the rails like her husband. Why not take him with her? Why not help the kid? I mean maybe all of this could have been prevented," he was desperately trying to make sense of it.

"She probably found out that her husband was a pedophile after he was arrested. After that, she either put blinders on or she knowingly let her son travel the streets of New York. Just the same, we need to be polite. She may be our only chance at catching him," Rollins tried to reinforce as she unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the car door. Carisi nodded and followed suit. They approached the front door and Rollins rang the doorbell.

"May I help you?" A woman in her sixties answered the door.

"Hello, I'm Detective Amanda Rollins. This is my partner Detective Dominick Carisi. We're from the New York Police Department and we're looking for Mrs. Amy Sullivan," the blonde explained.

"I am she. Why don't you come in?" The woman smiled slightly and let them into the house. They maneuvered down the short hallway to the living room.

"What can I do for you Detectives?" Amy asked.

"We're looking for your son, Carl," Carisi told her. She heaved a sigh and shook her head.

"I haven't spoken to him in a long time. I don't see how I can help," she said.

"He might be coming here. We believe that he may have slipped through our grasp and since you're the only relative we could find, we figured he might try and contact you," Rollins filled in.

"He wouldn't contact me. I didn't tell him where I was going or that I changed my name," Amy told them.

"Ma'am he's very dangerous and he's on the run. The miracles of the internet means that if I found you, he could find you, if he wants," Carisi spoke up and Rollins wanted to give him a look. Making this woman afraid wasn't going to help.

"What has he done now?" Amy asked.

"He murdered a man and kidnapped and assaulted a little girl," Carisi didn't mince words. Amy covered her mouth with her hand and looked about ready to cry.

"This is my fault. I should have had him institutionalized when I had the chance," she said.

"Ma'am?" Rollins was now regretting the mental chiding she had given her partner.

"After his father was arrested, Carl confessed to me that he was being molested by the next door neighbor. Apparently, Matthew was allowing it because the man was allowing him to molest his niece, Sandy. It was a sick and perverted thing that was going on right under my nose. After Sandy went home to live with her parents, Matthew went off the deep end. He told me that he had to travel to Albany on business. Instead he kidnapped Sandy, assaulted her, and when the police got close he killed her. He would have killed himself too except that the gun he used jammed.

"When Carl came to me about what had happened, I took him to see a therapist. The therapist tried to explain that after a couple sessions, she felt the only way to help Carl was to send him to an institution. She said that he admitted to killing small animals and that he found men to be repulsive. Given what had happened to him, she wasn't surprised by this but what did surprise her was that his father had been sharing photos of little girls with him and sharing his stories of what he was doing to Sandy. The therapist feared that he would become his father if something wasn't done to help him. I didn't want to believe it. I thought I could help Carl and not send him away. I was wrong," by now, the tears flowed down her cheeks and Rollins offered her the nearby tissue box.

"What did he do?" The blonde asked.

"He killed the neighbor's cat. The cops arrested him and when they searched the house, they found his stash of marijuana and porn. He went to a juvenile detention facility after pleading guilty to the charges. While he was there, I left New York. I changed my name and I didn't look back. I figured the system would handle him but I was wrong. I'm a horrible person," Amy was bawling and blew her nose into another tissue.

"Ma'am, you had a lot to deal with," Rollins was slowly wishing she could run outside and scream. Still she had no idea how she would have handled the situation and she had to give the woman an outlet.

"We're sorry we had to bring this up but do you know where he might go if not here?" Carisi asked.

"He used to have friends in the old neighborhood but I have no idea if they would still be in touch. I can give you the name of the juvenile detention facility he went to," Amy offered.

"That would be helpful," Rollins smiled slightly as the woman got up and left the room.

"Good grief. DeNile is not just a river," Carisi shook his head.

"You said it," the blonde admitted.


	17. Chapter 17

"Yes, your Honor. Of course I can be there; nothing is more important than Noah. Thank you. Goodbye," Olivia hung up her phone and put her head down on her desk.

"Everything ok?" Fin asked as he walked into the office.

"The judge wants to see me again. Because Noah was in the hospital again, the social worker made a note in the file. Apparently, I'm the reason that Noah got measles even though I was taking him for his vaccine," she said picking her head up.

"I don't know too many kids who were this looked after in the foster system. Did they stick a tracker in Noah's diaper or something?" He shook his head.

"I think the only reason the two of us keep getting into this mess is because Noah has physical problems. The minute a nurse or a doctor not familiar with the reason he and I are at the hospital, they get the social worker involved. Don't get me wrong, Miss Jackson, really cares and she tries really hard to look after all of her charges but it's really getting ridiculous," Olivia let out all the pent up emotions that had begun to boil the minute she heard the judge's voice.

"Well I guess it means the system is working but I know what you mean," Fin smiled and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Moving on though. What does our accessory after the fact have to say for himself?" The Sergeant asked.

"It seems that good ol' Russ met Carl at the hardware store. Helped him get the supplies to Carl's storage unit. Then he says that he helped him build the false wall in the unit. Now apparently there was a door behind some shelving that we missed but my guess is that Carl shoved Samantha in there and then filled in the hole. He said that he took Carl back to his place and that Carl let him borrow the car to run some errands. This seems a little too convenient don't you think?" Fin raised an eyebrow.

"Way too convenient. Russ must have known Carl before they met at the hardware store," she remarked.

"Nick's running it now while we're waiting for Russ's lawyer to show up," Fin grimaced.

"Great. Just what this case needs is more lawyers," Olivia heaved a sigh.

"I heard that," Barba said as he appeared in the doorway.

"Counselor, were your ears ringing?" The detective asked.

"A little. I heard you guys bagged an accomplice," the ADA said.

"Yeah but he lawyered up. Probably after he realized his story sounded pretty stupid. Any chance we could get a warrant for Russ Highland's place?" Olivia wanted to know.

"Well even if you can't tie him to the kidnapping of Samantha, he was in possession of stolen property and you're charging him with grand larceny right?" Barba asked.

"Yeah, we were going to book him right after we were done checking in with Liv," Fin explained.

"Good then book him. You shouldn't need a warrant for his place considering he told you that he was helping a fleeing suspect of a rape and murder. Tack on an accessory charge and see if he wants to talk deal. Meantime, see if our guy stayed put at his "new" friend's place," the ADA said.

"Suit up and grab some uniforms," Olivia said to Fin.

"On it," he nodded and headed out.

"Would you like to join us Mr. Barba?" The Sergeant wondered.

"As much as I'd love to I'm due in court. Talk to you later," he smiled and then headed out of her office. Olivia turned to Noah and said,

"You be a good boy for Officer Nowicki ok? Momma will be back as soon as she can." Leaning over the playpen, she kissed him on the top of the head before making sure her gun and badge were secure and heading out of the door.

Meanwhile, Rollins and Carisi were winding their way back into the great state of New York. Although the blonde had been cursing under her breath for the last part of the trip.

"Just our luck Carl went to Spofford. Place closed down four years ago and all the staff would have been scattered to the winds," she muttered.

"Yeah well we could put in a request for the file from the Department of Corrections," Carisi said.

"The records are sealed," she said.

"The inmate records are but their personnel records aren't. We get back to the precinct, call Corrections, and see if they would help us out with personnel. Then we track them all down until we get a lead," he seemed more confident than she did.

"Do you know how long that will take? The longer we take to find Gregg the more likely he'll find another victim," Rollins pointed out.

"Yeah but do you have any better options?" Carisi wanted to know. That's when their radio crackled to life. They were finally back in range of the dispatcher system.

"SVU requesting SWAT and all available personnel to address…" Rollins slammed her hands on the siren as the dispatcher relayed the address.

"You think they found him?" Carisi asked as he reached over the seat and grabbed their bullet proof vests.

"If there is a God they did," the blonde responded.


	18. Chapter 18

Rollins wheeled the car onto the scene just as SWAT was surrounding the home. She and Carisi quickly pulled their vests on and met up with the Sergeant who was talking to the team on the radio.

"What have we got?" Rollins asked.

"There's no sign of the truck that we put the APB out on so maybe nothing. SWAT is…" she didn't finish the sentence as shots rang out and the detectives ducked.

"Shit," Fin cursed.

"Status check!" Olivia shouted over the radio and everyone radioed in that no one had been hit.

"We've got a hole in the backdoor though. Person inside has a shotgun," radioed one of the SWAT team members. The home was small and the homes on either side of it where only about two car widths apart. Any errant shot could enter the homes on either side and Olivia was glad that she'd made sure they were empty first.

"Announce yourselves and prepare to enter. I'm heading to the front door," Olivia ordered. She then stood and headed over to the SWAT team near the front of the home. Fin, Nick, Rollins, and Carisi followed suit, weapons drawn. The radio crackled to life and the SWAT team could be heard announcing,

"NYPD SWAT! PUT THE WEAPON DOWN AND COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEAD!" The response was another shotgun blast in their general direction.

"Fall back!" The SWAT team leader ordered and the men retreated to just outside the view of the backdoor.

"Carl Gregg! This is Sergeant Benson, Manhattan SVU! If you do not put down the weapon and come out with your hands up, we're coming in!" She tried to see if he would respond to a female, given his dislike of men. It seemed that the only time he liked men was when he could use them and Gregg knew that he would get nowhere with SWAT.

"The only way I'm coming out is in a body bag!" He shouted, this time he fired at the front door. SWAT held up their shields as debris from the door and buckshot found its way in their direction.

"That can be arranged but we'd rather not have anyone die today!" Olivia yelled back.

"Speak for yourself!" He said as he fired another round out the front door. The group near the front door backed up again and Olivia signaled for the crew toward the back of the house to move in. He had to be out of round for the shotgun and with any luck they'd catch him trying to reload.

"NYPD! Drop your weapon!" The SWAT team leader ordered as he threw a flash bang grenade into the newly formed hole in the door. It detonated and both the front and back teams rushed in with the detectives following closely behind.

"Get down on the ground! Get down on the ground!" The SWAT team leader ordered. However, Gregg didn't do as they said, reaching for something behind his back. Without hesitation, the SWAT team member next to Olivia fired his weapon, hitting Gregg in the shoulder which was reaching behind his back and the shot dropped him to the floor.

"Secure him!" Came the order, which was quickly done. The item that Gregg had been reaching for was a revolver. The rest of the SWAT teams swept the home looking for anything suspicious before announcing that Gregg was home alone and that the house was clear.

"We need paramedics in here!" Olivia radioed in. Quickly, the medics rushed in and scooped up their new patient.

"I'll ride with this bastard," Fin offered.

"Go. He might try something on the way to hospital since he was so intent on getting himself killed," Olivia told him. Fin nodded and headed out with the paramedics.

"You guys might want to see this," the SWAT team leader said as he approached the detectives.

"What did your guys find?" Rollins asked as they followed the man down the basement stairs.

"Your suspect didn't live here did he?" The team leader wondered.

"No, we suspect he was using the home owner or they were working together," Nick said.

"Well it seems the other guy was a Corrections Officer. You want me to contact IAB?" He asked as he pointed out the little room in the basement. On the walls were commendations and an old uniform, as if Russ Highland had once been a proud corrections officer.

"No because I think I know what the connection is between these two," Rollins shook her head.

"Ten bucks says he worked at Spofford before it closed," Carisi spoke up which caused Olivia and Nick to look at him, confused.


	19. Chapter 19

"The ride to the hospital went smoothly and they are taking Gregg in for surgery now," Fin explained.

"All right. Carisi and Rollins have something that we might be able to use against Gregg and Highland. Keep me posted on his condition. I'm sending uniforms over to relieve you when the surgery is finished," Olivia told him over the phone. She currently sat behind her desk while waiting for the two detectives she had mentioned previously. They were checking into something and she was beginning to wonder about the case.

"Sounds like a plan. Talk to you later," Fin said and with that the call ended. Olivia hung up and turned to the playpen. Noah was napping and she was glad for that.

"We're ready for you Sergeant," Rollins poked her head into the office. Olivia nodded and left her seat, heading for the bullpen.

"Ok so what exactly did you guys find out with Gregg's Mom?" Nick asked.

"That our pedophile was well on his way to becoming a serial killer," Carisi said.

"He hasn't killed anybody…" Nick gave him a look.

"Not people. We confirmed through Gregg's former caseworker that he admitted to killing small animals to see what it was like along with the neighbor's cat. The staff at Spofford confirmed that Russ Highland worked on Gregg's cell block and basically Highland was Gregg's only friend on the inside. The other delinquents stayed away from him unless it was to beat him up," Rollins explained.

"Ok so our guy, who has a thing against men, considering what happened to him, I can't say as I blame him, but why make friends with Highland? I mean, why make friends at all on the inside?" Nick was curious.

"Well I'm not sure that "friends" is the accurate term…" Carisi started.

"What else would you call it?" Olivia asked.

"Just like with Samantha's Dad, I would say that Gregg used Highland. He made "friends" with him and the beating stopped. Despite his crimes, Gregg became a trustee. He only had one incident afterwards and it seems like it wasn't fully investigated," Rollins told them.

"What kind of incident?" Olivia gave her a look.

"A fellow inmate accused Gregg of assaulting him. He was taken to the infirmary and examined but that's all we got in the file," the blonde shrugged.

"Did it list the injuries?" Nick asked.

"No. I guess it would be in the accuser's file which we won't be able to get without a court order. You know that Highland and Gregg won't talk about it. It probably implicates one of them or both," Rollins said.

"Why is Highland not a corrections officer now?" Olivia wanted to know.

"When they closed Spofford, those near retirement were given a choice – take early retirement or get laid off. Highland took the early retirement package. Not unusual considering he only had two more years to go before they forced him to retire," Carisi shrugged.

"When did that incident occur between Gregg and the other inmate?" Olivia questioned.

"Six months before the facility shut down," Rollins shook her head.

"They swept it under the rug probably. Gregg was due to get out two months before the place closed. The two inmates could be kept apart for a few months and staff were leaving or retiring," Nick said.

"Probably. Something is off though. Did we find any connections between Gregg and Highland, after Gregg was released from Spofford?" Olivia wanted to know.

"Highland showed up at the sentencing hearing for Gregg for when he got arrested for beating up his neighbor. It didn't seem to sway the judge but they must have written letters or something," Rollins said.

"Still doesn't explain the man-hater keeping in touch with another guy unless…" Olivia didn't get a chance to finish the thought as Rollins desk phone rang.

"Rollins," by her answer, the call must have been from the lab or the crime scene. It was a short call and the blonde thanked the caller.

"We know why Gregg and Highland got a long so well," she said.

"They find something at the crime scene?" Carisi asked.

"The CSI techs found a hidden stash of kiddie porn in Highland's basement; all little girls. They're dusting the stuff for prints but it's pretty safe to say that they're Highland's," she explained.

"Where was the porn located?" Olivia wanted to know.

"Behind the little wall of awards from the Department of Corrections. It seems he would revisit his memories there since they found fluids on the couch nearby," Rollins almost gagged.

"So Highland shares his kiddie porn with young Carl and they bond. Makes sense that they would stay in touch," Carisi said.

"We need to see if looking at pictures was all Highland was interested in. Then we need to talk to Barba," Olivia told them.


	20. Chapter 20

The next morning Olivia sat outside Judge Linden's office. Noah was in the stroller next to her happily playing with his Cheerios. Olivia smirked as she tried to get him to eat them instead of playing with them.

"Ah Sergeant Benson. On time and waiting for me," Linden smiled as she pulled out her keys to unlock her office.

"Of course your Honor," Olivia stood and the two women shook hands.

"I am sorry about all of this but I've been trying to get Social Services to cut you some slack but it seems they really have it in for you and poor little Noah," Linden said as she opened the door.

"I can appreciate the system working, but after they tried to accuse me of harming him when they realized one of their foster homes had done so, they've been testy with me," Olivia explained.

"Yes well it seems to be going around after the latest rash of problems around the country," the judge shook her head and was about to hold the door open so Olivia could push the stroller in when a familiar voice from down the hall stopped both ladies.

"Hang on! I got the little guy," Elliot smiled. Olivia was floored. She had told him about the appointment and he had wished he could help but he was supposed to be at his second job right now.

"Detective Stabler?" Judge Linden cocked an eyebrow.

"It's just Elliot now. I retired a few years back," he smiled and shook the judge's hand.

"Well Elliot, it's good to see you. You don't mind hanging onto Noah for us for us for a few minutes do you?" Linden asked.

"Not at all. He's a great little kid," Elliot was still smiling. The judge nodded and started to turn around when out of the corner of her eye she saw Elliot give Olivia a peck on the cheek. Inwardly she smiled. Both detectives had been in her courtroom before and she wasn't surprised to see them together. The kiss surprised her but she couldn't be happier for Olivia who, in the beginning, had been struggling to be a single parent.

"So, why don't we take it from the top? Noah had the measles?" Linden asked once the door was closed.

"He picked it up at the pediatrician's office. I was taking him to get his vaccination and regrettably the little boy next to him was carrying the measles with him. Given his respiratory problems, it was a very scary situation," Olivia explained.

"I imagine. So that's why I got the call from Social Services," it was more of a statement than a question.

"I would imagine so," the Sergeant nodded.

"Well he seems perfectly healthy now and I don't think there's any need for concern but we needed to have this meeting so it was on the record. Now, I hope I'm not being too personal but how long have you and Detective… I mean Elliot, been together?" Linden wanted to know.

"Not long but he's been helping out where he can. It's a great relief to have a great support system between the squad and Elliot, Noah and I are very loved," Olivia smiled. It was a different one than the ones the judge had seen before from her and that made her smile.

"Well then I think we've got it all covered. Good luck with everything and hopefully this will be our last meeting on the subject," Linden smiled and stood. They shook hands again and with that Olivia was out the door.

"Hey, so how'd it go?" Elliot asked.

"Better than expected. I think Noah and I are in the clear," Olivia smiled.

"Excellent!" He leaned in and kissed her on the lips this time.

"Not that I'm complaining, but aren't you supposed to be at work?" She asked when they parted.

"Well yes, but I managed to get a delayed start today. I told my boss that I had some family business to attend to," Elliot smiled and Olivia almost teared up right there. Still there were some serious things they needed to discuss.

"Can we have dinner tonight? I really think we need to talk," she said.

"I'll see what I can do. Meantime, we better get Noah to Lucy and you to the precinct," he winked as they started off down the hall.

"Morning Liv," Fin smiled slightly as the Sergeant strode into the bullpen about twenty minutes later on the way to her office.

"Morning Fin. What does Barba have to say about our two pedophiles?" She asked, stopping at his desk.

"Well he'd like to be able to flip Highland onto Gregg but so far we've had no luck. Highland lawyered up and Gregg just smirks at us. He hasn't asked for council but he also isn't talking," he explained.

"Are they both booked?" Olivia wanted to know.

"Highland was booked as an accomplice to kidnapping, aiding and abetting a fugitive, and possession of child porn. Gregg was booked on possession with intent to sell child porn, kidnapping, rape, multiple counts of attempted murder on police officers, and the of course the murder of Gene Sanderson. They're being arraigned today," Fin said.

"Well we've got Highland on the aiding and abetting and the child porn for sure. It might be hard to prove that he knew about the kidnapping, other than the fact that he helped Gregg building that wall. Samantha never mentioned another man when we talked with her. However, we've got Gregg dead to rights on everything whether he talks or not. With Samantha as our witness and all the evidence we collected from the crime scenes, he's going away for life," Olivia figured they were in good shape.

"I won't be so sure about that," Rollins said as she walked into the precinct. She was late again and Olivia gave her a look.

"I was just down at the hospital. Samantha tried to kill herself last night. She tried to hang herself with her bathrobe tie when she went to the bathroom. The officers guarding her stopped her but I'm not exactly sure she'll be fit to testify. The nurses said she shouldn't have any permanent damage but there's no way to tell about her mental state. Skoda is with her now," the blonde explained.

"Good God," Nick murmured.

"Sounds like we might need a confession after all," Olivia shook her head. Samantha had been through a lot and Olivia knew that it would take time to heal, more time than maybe anyone really knew or realized. They would need to help her by getting Gregg to talk.

"Get Barba on the phone. Get him to request a seven-thirty hearing. I want Gregg forced to talk to someone," the Sergeant ordered.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK A LITTLE RATINGS ISSUE TO DEAL WITH. THIS CHAPTER IS RATED M! LANGUAGE AND OTHER MORE ADULT TOPICS ARE DISCUSSED

Doctor Emil Skoda rubbed his forehead. It had already been a long day and it was only ten o'clock in the morning. He pulled into the gate at Rikers and the guard waved him through. Parking the car, he headed up to the door where the corrections officers typically entered and was allowed to pass.

Signing in on the register as required, the guard pointed down the hallway and Skoda thanked him. The psychiatrist found his newest patient waiting for him. The arraignment had gone quickly and there were no objections to the seven-thirty hearing given by the legal aid attorney that had been assigned to the case.

"Hello, I'm Doctor Skoda," he started and then he quickly went into the reasoning for this session and why it was important.

"So why don't we start with do you understand the charges against you?" The doctor asked.

"Of course," Gregg said but didn't elaborate.

"Ok so what did you feel when you killed Gene Sanderson?" Skoda wanted to know. To this Gregg just shrugged. The psychiatrist wondered if he was playing a game with him. Gregg's IQ put him above average so he knew that his newest patient was intelligent enough to know what he meant.

"Did you feel something similar as you felt when you were raping Samantha Rodgers?" Skoda watched as Gregg's face remained motionless and again all he got was a shrug. It was then that he realized he was being read, just like he was reading the defendant.

"How about all those pornographic images? Do you like them for their content or did they remind you of your father?" That did it.

"My father fucked my mother once just to see if he'd get what he wanted. Joke was on him. He got me," Gregg responded.

"Surely he and your mother could have had another child. This isn't China," Skoda remarked.

"It seems dear old Dad had some trouble in that department. After I was born, he spent more time in the basement than he did with my mother. They fought a lot, mostly about me, so I turned my attention to other interests," Gregg told him. This made Skoda curious and he made a mental note to get Matthew Gregg's medical file.

"Like killing the neighbors' cat?" The psychiatrist wanted to know.

"I was curious but my curiosity got me into trouble," he nodded.

"It did but who's really to blame for your troubles? After all, your parents should share some of the blame. They did leave you to your own devices," Skoda said.

"Well not entirely. You see despite the fact that my father had a thing for little girls he used to get off watching me get off on those photos he'd share. I thought we bonded but the first chance he got, he sent me over to the neighbor while he diddled the girl from next door. He said that there was nothing in the world like little girls and the neighbor liked little boys like he liked Sandy. So while he was fucking Sandy, I was getting fucked by the neighbor. The men in my life taught me a lot," Gregg smirked.

"Like Russ Highland?" Skoda wondered.

"Russ was the only man who didn't treat me like a piece of meat. He shared his proclivities and we got along," the defendant tilted his head.

"So Russ didn't hurt you?" The doctor asked.

"On the contrary. He treated me well and I earned his trust. It helped me get through my juvenile sentence," Gregg told him.

"Well didn't your mother help you through your sentence?" Skoda wanted to know.

"My "mother" was off finding someone who would fill her needs. As I said, dear old Dad only did her once and it didn't turn out so well," Gregg scoffed.

"Why do you think they only had intercourse once? It's true that a pregnancy can occur on the first time but it's not always the case," the doctor was very curious as to how Gregg arrived at this conclusion.

"He told me. You see he liked the fear that came with the first time. He had admitted that they had agreed to wait until their wedding night. He thought that being with my mother would cure what ailed him and instead it made it worse. She was only nervous for their first time. After that, she wasn't nervous or afraid. He said, he would purposely get himself all worked up and spent before they went to bed after that. That way he couldn't perform and she wouldn't push the issue," the story seemed odd but it wasn't uncommon for rapists to get off on the fear of their victims.

"You see he got bored using his hands and needed to find something or someone else. I wasn't an option because he didn't want little boys. The little girl next door though…" Gregg shrugged.

"Was Samantha like the little girl next door?" Skoda was curious as to the response.

"She was perfect. Best time of my life. Definitely better than my first," with that the psychiatrist dug into the recesses of his mind. Sergeant Benson hadn't mentioned another victim of Gregg's. The session continued for another thirty minutes and afterward the doctor felt like he needed a shower.

Once inside his car, he quickly pulled out his cell phone and called ADA Barba. The lawyer picked up the phone and announced that he was on speaker as Sergeant Benson was in his office.

"Carl Gregg is not insane but he is definitely a sociopath. I'd bring up his parents at trial. They seem to be the trigger. If I hadn't brought them up, he would have remained silent," Skoda told them.

"Then that's what I'll do. Thank you Doctor," Barba said.

"Anytime," with that the call ended and Barba turned to Olivia and said,

"Well I guess I had better get trial prep under way."


	22. Chapter 22

Over the next few days while Barba was getting ready for trial, the SVU squad was busy digging for Gregg's first victim. Doctor Skoda had talked to the Sergeant when he arrived at the precinct shortly after his visit with the pedophile. He had been confused by the reference Gregg had made and Olivia knew that if they could find the first victim it might aid in Barba's case. The statute of limitations had run out for the unknown juvenile to press charges but that didn't mean he couldn't be helpful or that he didn't need help of his own.

"Well this is frustrating," Nick heaved a sigh as he sifted through more paperwork. They were trying to find the one prisoner who could be the victim out of a stack of hundreds of prisoners. Regrettably though, it had to be pushed to the back burner. They had more cases coming in and basically, they didn't need the first victim to nail Gregg.

"Tell me about it. This guy that Rollins and I are chasing is pretty sick and we haven't nailed anything down," Carisi shook his head. The blonde and the newest detective had been moved to the newest case with Olivia and Fin partnering up so Nick could run with the paperwork.

"That's the problem. If these guys weren't sick, we'd be out of a job," Fin chimed in. The group nodded and turned back to their individual searches.

"Is Sergeant Benson in?" A familiar voice asked.

"For you Stabler?" Fin chuckled as he pointed the former detective towards Olivia's office.

"Well you know this is usually the only place I can track her down," Elliot winked and headed into the office.

"Hey gorgeous," he said.

"Hey El. Is it lunch time already?" She looked at her watch.

"It is indeed. Since we didn't get to talk the other day I figured you'd want to take advantage of today's lunch," he lifted the Chinese takeout bag in his hand.

"I do. Close the door," Olivia nodded. Elliot did so and then set the bag of food down on the desk and they quickly started to tuck into it.

"So what's on your mind? I know you've been thinking about something big," Elliot said after about half of his food was gone.

"Well two somethings actually," she admitted before setting her food down on the desk.

"Two? Uh oh," he teased.

"Well first is that after everything that Noah and I have been through, I can't imagine my life without him. I'm starting the paperwork for adoption," she told him.

"That's great! I'm happy for the both of you. He really needs someone to look out for him and I really love seeing Momma Bear Benson," Elliot smiled.

"I will hurt Fin for spreading that around," she laughed and shook her head.

"No you won't. Besides it totally fits. I knew you would be a great mom," he told her.

"Well that brings me to the next thing that we need to discuss. El, I love you. I've loved you for a very long time and I know we're in the odd stages of dating and things are tough with our jobs, and Noah has been having troubles too but I think that life would become much simpler if we shared the same address. What I'm trying to say is that, both Noah and I would love it if you moved in with us," Olivia said. It was a big step. She was asking him to basically become a father again after having so many kids of his own. She worried that perhaps she should have waited. She worried he'd say "no" but she couldn't take the nights with the bed empty next to her. There were still some occasional fears that welled up in her about her and Noah not being alone in the apartment. The nights where she slept with her gun under the pillow despite the fact that Lewis was dead.

"Liv, it would make me the happiest man in the world!" Elliot was all smiles.

"Really? You don't mind changing dirty diapers again?" She asked.

"I was born to change diapers," he chuckled as he got up from his seat, walked around the desk, and pulled her from her chair into a big hug.

"I was afraid you'd say "no"," she admitted.

"Never," he reassured her before pulling her in for a kiss. Soon they were both lost in each other and it was the knock on the office door that forced them apart. Taking a few moments to catch her breath, Olivia called for the person to enter.

"I hate to interrupt but I might have found who we're looking for," Nick said.

"Really?" Olivia asked.

"The stats match and he still lives in New York. Should I call him?" Nick wanted to know.

"I think a home visit may be more appropriate. Where does he live?" She wanted to know.

"Just outside of Buffalo," the younger man explained.

"A road trip sounds like it's in order," Elliot commented.

"I can't spare anyone. You'd have to go by yourself," Olivia said. She wasn't sure if Nick was ready for that. He was a good detective, there was no doubt, but it was going to be hard to bring up the past with the victim.

"I'll go with him. I know the ropes," Elliot offered.

"How are you going to get the time off?" She asked.

"Simple. I tell my boss at the storage facility its police business. He'll be ecstatic. Keeps telling me I'm overqualified for the security job. The other job has a new guy coming in this week. They don't need me and it'd only be for a couple of days," he said.

"If you can get the time off, I'll rush the consultant paperwork through so you two can be on your way. Let me know as soon as you can. Our victim has waited this long to tell his story, I'm sure a few more days won't be an issue for Barba," Olivia told them.


	23. Chapter 23

The next morning Nick picked Elliot up at his apartment. The former detective had coffee for the two of them and the younger man set off for the highway. It was going to be a long trip to a little town about thirty minutes south of Buffalo, called East Aurora.

"You think this guy moved to the other end of the state to a tiny town in an effort to get away from his past?" Nick asked once they were safely onto the highway and heading for the interstate which was often called "the ninety" by those that lived further upstate. It traversed the entire state from down around New York City up to Albany and then almost down the middle of the state on the way to Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo before heading south to the Pennsylvania state line.

"Could be. Life can be much simpler when you leave your past behind. Especially to a place where no one knows you and they don't think to ask those kinds of questions about your past," Elliot nodded.

"I'm guessing you couldn't leave your past behind," Nick said.

"I tried so I could get my marriage back in order but in the end I realized that no matter what I did, I could not make my ex-wife happy. Although to be fair I hadn't been trying the last few years either. We jumped into marriage out of necessity not because we were destined for one another. When I fell into the bottle, she'd had enough and I couldn't blame her," the younger man was surprised at how open the older man was being.

"So making amends then?" Nick asked.

"Yes and finally feeling better. I think the family as a whole is happier now. Kathy and I manage to be civil when I come to visit Eli or I get my weekends with him and that's really the only time we interact. The older kids can see me whenever and truth be told, they miss Liv. I never realized how much she ended up doing for me and my family throughout our partnership which is probably why Kathy felt threatened by her. To be honest after the way Eli came into this world, I can see how it became even more of a challenge between us," Elliot mused.

"What do you mean?" The younger man asked as he shifted the car around the slow car in front of them.

"We were chasing a suspect and Fin and I had to head out of town. Liv offered to take Kathy to her doctor appointment for me. On the way there, they got into an accident. Liv did everything she could to stay with Kathy and help the fire fighters and paramedics. Without her help, both Kathy and Eli might not be alive today," Nick marveled at another kernel of information his former partner had hidden from him.

"I'm telling you all of this because you need to hear it but also because you're hiding something from her, aren't you?" Elliot gave him a look.

"Liv was my partner before she was my Sergeant and someone has to have her back. I'll feel better knowing that the rest of the squad is there but she needs someone at home with her. I can tell when she hasn't been entirely honest with us. She still has trouble sleeping and I know it isn't just from little Noah," he confessed.

"Yeah I know but if you promise to keep what I'm about to tell you to yourself, will that help?" Elliot wanted to know.

"Scouts honor," Nick nodded.

"She asked me to move in with her. She won't be alone anymore," he said.

"Good. She seems happy and that's what I want for her, to be happy. Then promise to keep what I'm about to say quiet. I'm putting in a transfer of sorts. Both Zara and Gil are out in California and I want to be there for them. I made a few calls and I have a job at the LAPD waiting for me as soon as the retirement from the NYPD paperwork goes through," the younger man told him.

"Wow. When are you going to tell Liv?" Elliot asked.

"I was going to wait until the end of the week and then have her put the paperwork in. She's in the middle of a case and we're still trying to nail Gregg so I want Barba to have a good grip on things before I just drop this in her lap," Nick explained.

"Well good luck to you," the older man said.

"Thanks," Nick gave a slight smile.


	24. Chapter 24

"We'll recess for the day. Trial will resume at nine am tomorrow morning," with that Judge Lorenzo banged his gavel and Barba let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. The trial had been going well for the prosecution. The experts had finished up their testimony after three days and the next witness on the stand was to be Samantha Boze. She was basically the last witness on the list for his case. While he appreciated the SVU squad's attempt to find Gregg's victim from juvie, Barba wasn't sure how much insight this guy would be willing to give considering he'd left the city and his old life behind.

"Barba, can we talk?" The familiar voice of the SVU Sergeant shook him from his thoughts. He felt her hand on his shoulder and he made him smile.

"Absolutely Liv. What's on your mind?" He asked, as he stood and they began to walk out of the courtroom.

"I know Samantha is up tomorrow to testify and I have Rollins staying with her and her mother at the hotel tonight. Are you sure that she needs to testify at all?" Olivia wanted to know.

"Experts can talk all they want but the jury wants to see the victim. Judge Lorenzo has ordered the courtroom closed tomorrow during her testimony so only the judge, the jury, the defense, and myself will be there. Besides if I can show how young she is and how affected she is, I don't see the jury being able to not convict him," the ADA explained.

"She's just very fragile and I'm worried about her. She's already tried to kill herself once," Olivia said.

"True. That's why I pulled some strings and I got her and her mom an appointment at a good psychologist friend's office. They'll be staying at the hotel for a little while longer. Their neighbor has agreed to take them in after the trial so that Samantha doesn't have to switch schools," Barba told her.

"He offered?" The Sergeant was surprised.

"He feels guilty that he wasn't able to save Samantha and it turns out that he kind of has a big crush on Sherry," the ADA smirked.

"How does Sherry feel about that?" Olivia gave him a look.

"Apparently, she's more than ok with it. I guess they've been flirting back and forth over the fence in between their houses for a while. I had my investigator run a background check through some secure federal channels on him and Carisi helped with a little interrogating to go along with Fin's talk with him earlier in the case. Sherry doesn't have any family nearby and even if she did it's her elderly parents who are in a nursing home in Westchester County," he said.

"All right. I just don't want either of them ending up in an abusive relationship again. I'm not sure they could take it," Olivia said. By now they had reached the courthouse steps.

"I know. That's why I did my homework before ok'ing it. I suppose it really isn't my decision but I wanted to be sure like you do," Barba smiled. The Sergeant nodded and started off into the distance.

"Anything else you want to discuss?" He seemed to sense that something was on her mind.

"Sorry, no. I just have a lot on my mind and I want Gregg behind bars for the rest of his life," Olivia said.

"Sounds like a plan to me," he winked. Olivia gave him a smile and then they headed down the steps. Barba hailed a cab to share and the two headed back to their respective offices.

Meanwhile, Nick and Elliot had finally arrived in East Aurora and checked into their hotel. It would only be for one night which didn't make it any more comfortable that they were sharing a room. Maybe if they had worked together they'd feel better about it. Nick phoned the man that they wanted to talk to and he said that he was expecting them and that they could come over any time.

"Should we get some food first?" The younger detective asked.

"Maybe just some coffee. I don't want you vomiting on the poor guy," Elliot teased.

"You think his story will be that gruesome?" Nick decided to play along.  
"There's no way to really know. Why don't we see what he has to say and then we'll find a bar," Elliot told him.

"Sounds like a plan as long as it's a juice bar," Nick did a little jabbing of his own.

"Right," Elliot nodded and they headed back out of the hotel room and back into the car. Punching the address into the GPS, Nick fired up the engine and they headed off down the road.

"This is it?" Elliot asked as they pulled down a long winding driveway, the buildings hidden from the road by the trees that lined the property frontage.

"I guess. GPS is always right, right?" Nick shrugged as the evening sun began to wane and the trees blocked what little sunlight they had left, he turned on the headlights.

"Oh there's the house," the former detective pointed out. It was definitely an older farmhouse but the barn looked relatively new.

"Wow. He's done well for himself," the younger man was impressed by the size of the grounds and the home.

"May be. Course, land and homes are cheaper up here too," Elliot gave him a wink as Nick parked the car and they disembarked. A man in his late forties, early fifties exited the building.

"I've been wondering when you'd find me," he said.

"Really Mr. Lindley?" Nick asked, considering the man hadn't said anything like that over the phone.

"So what did Carl Gregg do now?" Lindley wanted to know.


	25. Chapter 25

"Thank you for sharing your story Mr. Lindley. I know it wasn't easy," Nick spoke up while there was a pause in the conversation.

"Well I think you need to thank my wife. She's the one who helped me get through some of the darkest moments in my life," the elder gentleman smiled at the woman seated next to him. Mrs. Lindley put a hand on his thigh.

"He doesn't give himself nearly enough credit," she smiled back.

"Agreed," Elliot nodded.

"I have to confess though, I'm not sure how my story will help you nail the bastard," Lindley said.

"While his prior bad acts can't be allowed into the trial, we can still trip him up when he takes the stand. After his newest victim testifies tomorrow morning, he'll have no choice but to do so," Elliot explained.

"We are sorry that we could not get you justice," Nick said.

"There will be plenty of justice when he's convicted. I've put it behind me and now it's time for him to realize that he can't get away with what he's done. That sick sadistic guard too," Lindley told them.

"Oh they are both going away. It'll just be for how long that the jury will have to decide," Nick gave him a wink.

"This might be a little weird but can I come to the city for his sentencing? It's something I need to see," Lindley said.

"It's not prohibited. I would head down as soon as possible. The defense will probably start their case on Monday," Elliot said. He was getting a weird vibe from the elder man which he wasn't getting from before but maybe he had been out of the game a little too long.

"Ok, thanks. Now do you boys need anything to eat? Marge and I haven't eaten dinner yet," Lindley told them.

"We need to get going I'm afraid. Thanks for the offer though," Elliot shot the offer down before Nick had a chance to open his mouth. The younger detective didn't question him in front of the couple however.

"Thanks again," Nick smiled as he stood. Elliot followed suit and Marge showed them to the door. The two men climbed back into the standard issue sedan and headed for the hotel.

"What's going on?" Nick asked.

"I might be losing touch but it seems like something shifted in the conversation. I'm calling Liv," Elliot said. Nick gave him a look while the former detective pulled out his phone.

The next morning, Rollins led Samantha into the courtroom. She wished that they weren't putting her through this but she understood Barba's reasoning. The little girl didn't want her to leave but the blonde promised she'd be right outside the courtroom waiting for her. They took a seat right behind Barba at the prosecution table. He turned around and gave them a smile.

"Are we all prepared?" The judge asked as he entered the courtroom.

"The prosecution is, your Honor," Barba stood up from his seat.

"The defense as well your Honor," Gregg's court appointed lawyer, Sam Sneed, nodded and rose from his seat.

"Bring in the jury then and we'll proceed," Judge Lorenzo ordered. With that Rollins stood up and squeezed the girl's shoulder before heading out of the doors of the courtroom.

"The prosecution calls Samantha Boze to the stand," Barba stood and announced. The little girl left her seat and walked up to the witness stand where she was quickly sworn in. The women on the jury and even some of the men were already giving Gregg harsh looks. Barba took his time and began to ask her questions. How did she come to meet the defendant? What happened when she did? What happened in his apartment? Most of the questions she stumbled through mostly because of the memories. Still she was able to complete the answers, sometimes in gruesome detail, and Barba was glad that his prepping was helping.

"The prosecution rests," Barba said.

"Defense counsel, would you like to question the witness?" Judge Lorenzo asked.

"Yes, your Honor," Sneed stood. He was between a rock and a hard place. The jury already hated his client and the only way to hate his client less was to throw some dirt on the victim. It was a risky strategy but he didn't have much of a choice.

"Samantha, I know this is hard but can you tell us why you're wearing a turtleneck?" He asked. Under the table, Barba clenched his fists. He could not object however, no matter how hard he wanted to.

"I…" she started and stopped.

"You're covering up what you did to yourself, aren't you?" Sneed pressed.

"Objection! Badgering!" Barba protested.

"Watch yourself Mr. Sneed. Sustained," Lorenzo gave him a look so the defense attorney tried a different tack.

"What happened in your hospital bathroom?" Sneed wanted to know. This Barba could not object to, it was a legitimate question.

"I…" the girl couldn't actually bring herself to say it and instead she pulled down her turtleneck collar. The large bruises were terrible shades of purple, blue, and yellow as they healed.

"Do you know how long you were without oxygen?" Sneed asked to which a very small "no" was uttered from Samantha.

"At this time, I'd like to request to recall this witness at a later time, once the defense has had the opportunity to have its medical expert take the stand," Sneed said.

"Objection!" Barba stood up and practically shouted.

"Approach! Both of you!" Lorenzo ordered.


	26. Chapter 26

The judge covered the microphone as the two attorneys approached. Barba was steaming under the collar. He knew that the defense had to be brutal but he also knew that there was a chance that the judge would agree with Sneed.

"Counselor, I thought I was very clear. This witness would only be on the witness stand for one day and one day only," Lorenzo said.

"I have a right to question her on the results of her suicide attempt and I have the right to have a medical expert show how that attempt could have confused her brain activity," Sneed argued.

"He has a point but what good would it do to recall the witness after the medical expert?" Barba argued.

"I'm going to side with the prosecution on this one unless you can give me a good reason why I should allow the witness to be recalled," Lorenzo gave Sneed a look.

"I need time for my expert to medically examine the girl before he can testify," Sneed said.

"Your Honor that is an insult to everyone at the hospital. Are you claiming they don't know how to do their jobs?" Barba argued.

"Agreed. You have all of the medical scans that were done at the hospital as a result of the suicide attempt. Your expert can review those," Lorenzo told the defense attorney.

"He hasn't had a chance to interview Samantha. A scan is fine but it doesn't help with the actual interaction required. My expert can't ask a scan how it was feeling," Sneed pushed.

"You have the report from Doctor Skoda," Barba countered.

"I've heard enough. Step back," Lorenzo ordered. The defense attorney tried to object but the judge waved his hand. Barba smirked on his way back to his seat.

"Defense's motion to recall the witness is denied. Do you have any more questions for the witness, Mr. Sneed?" Lorenzo asked. Sneed swallowed and said,

"I do your Honor."

"Then please continue," the judge told him.

"Samantha, why did you try to hurt yourself?" Sneed asked.

"Because I couldn't face what happened to me," the girl answered truthfully.

"I am sorry that you felt that way but I have to ask about your father. Why did he move out?" Sneed asked.

"Objection! Relevance!" Barba said.

"I'm getting to it your Honor," Sneed said.

"Make it quick," Lorenzo told him.

"Why did your father move out Samantha?" The defense attorney asked again.

"Mom kicked him out after he hurt her. She said that wouldn't ever do that again," Samantha said.

"Why would he not do it again?" Sneed wanted to know.

"She went to court," Samantha answered.

"And what happened after he moved out?" Sneed pressed.

"Mom changed the locks and I started taking Tae Kwon Do," she said.

"Did you have an occasion to use your Tae Kwon Do?" He asked.

"When the two men tried to take me," Samantha told him.

"What happened to the man that was supposedly helping my client?" Sneed wanted to know.

"Objection! I believe we've covered this incident," Barba said.

"We have. Move on Counselor," the judge was getting very upset. Sneed frowned so he did the last thing that he could think of. He had been trying to work up to it but he wasn't sure he would get the chance.

"One more question Samantha. What does your mother say about men and what you should do to them?" The defense attorney asked.

"Objection!" Barba started.

"Goes to her state of mind your Honor," Sneed argued.

"I'll allow it," Lorenzo had no choice but to give him that one.

"She says that they aren't good for anything and that I should stay away from them as much as possible because they're evil," Samantha answered.

"Nothing further your Honor," Sneed smirked slightly and the judge called for the defense to start their case on Monday. Barba left the courtroom wondering if Samantha's last answer just hurt their case.


	27. Chapter 27

The moment of truth came a few days later. The jury had been out for two days and Barba was starting to get nervous. Sneed had been backed into a corner but he obviously gave the jurors something to think about. The medical expert had really been key to the defense and the ADA hoped that the jurors wouldn't take the experts words as gospel. However, when the defense had exposed Sherry's hatred for men during Samantha's testimony, he had Olivia check into it. The battered woman admitted that she had told her daughter that men were evil but it was to mostly scare her from trusting her father. Sherry had also admitted that part of her had said that because she had believed that to be true after what had happened to her. Despite their flirtations, the neighbor John Mock, had never made her feel completely safe until he'd come over to attempt to stop her ex-husband from killing her. In fact now that John had taken them in, given them room, and only required that they let him know about their whereabouts so he could cook dinner, Sherry and Samantha were beginning to trust again.

All that was well and good but now Barba sat in his seat, his knee popping up and down. He was incredibly nervous which was odd for him. Of course, Gregg was as bad as Lewis and he feared that Gregg getting off would result in someone at SVU being a target. He'd noticed how Gregg had been eyeing Rollins during the trial. Though she wasn't his type, the blonde had been protective of Samantha, his accuser. There would be little doubt that if somehow the jury couldn't see through the psychology expert the defense had produced to rebut Doctor Skoda that Gregg would be more than likely heading for a mental hospital. Sneed had attempted to play the "not guilty by reason of insanity" defense but everyone knew that Gregg wasn't crazy, just highly intelligent.

"Please rise for the Honorable Judge Lorenzo," the bailiff called out. The prosecution and the defense rose as requested. It was then that Barba noticed something wasn't right. He had been so enveloped by his thoughts that he realized that Gregg wasn't there.

"Where is your client Mr. Sneed?" Lorenzo asked.

"I was told he would be here your Honor," Sneed replied. Barba could see the lawyer was genuinely confused as the rest of the court was. Lorenzo turned to the bailiff and the man went out of the side door of the courtroom. Shortly after that, there was shouting out in the hallway.

Nick and Elliot had been sitting in the gallery along with Olivia, Fin, Rollins, and Carisi. They both looked at each other as they recognized the one voice. Both bolted out of their seats and headed out into the hall. Olivia quickly followed and told Fin, Rollins, and Carisi to keep everyone else inside the courtroom.

"You sick son of a bitch!" Ralph Lindley was pointing a gun at Gregg. Nick and Elliot looked at one another, not sure how the elder man had secured a weapon until Elliot realized that one of the courtroom guards was lying on the floor by the benches along the far wall. Blood was streaming out onto the floor from what appeared to be a nasty head wound.

"What are you doing Mr. Lindley?" Nick asked, as he raised his weapon toward the older man. Elliot looked for a way to get to the downed guard. She was bleeding badly and Elliot knew that if they couldn't save her that Lindley would go down for more than just being out of his mind.

"Doing what I should have done years ago," Lindley cocked the weapon and the guards who were holding onto Gregg released the prisoner and went for their weapons.

"Everyone put your weapons down now!" Olivia shouted from her position behind Nick. She moved up to be even with her former partner before continuing,

"I'm Sergeant Olivia Benson, NYPD. Mr. Lindley don't do something you'll regret!" She was hoping that sense would get knocked into the abused man but it didn't seem to be working. However, the man didn't lower his weapon and the courtroom officers refused to lower theirs. It was at this point she was glad that both she and Nick were standing off to the side of the unstable man, out of the direct line of fire.

While everyone's eyes were trained on the guns in the room, Elliot managed to reach the guard. She was mumbling and he realized that Lindley had conked her over the head with the metal trash can that had been nearby. She must have caught the sharp edge of it gauging from the wound and the blood on the can itself. Elliot grabbed her radio and called for a bus along with SWAT; his voice mercifully hidden amongst the shouting going on down the hall. He then grabbed his jacket and tried to stop the bleeding but not before grabbing the officer's ankle weapon in case he needed it.

"Put it down Mr. Lindley. No one else needs to get hurt," Nick tried to reason with him.

"Gregg won't be able to hurt anyone when he's dead," Lindley argued. Olivia knew immediately that he was going to pull that trigger no matter what and the officers would be forced to take him out. It was suicide by cop and he hoped to take Gregg with him. She gave Nick a look and he knew what she was thinking. They may never have gelled like she and Elliot had but they definitely had a shared wavelength.

"Mr. Lindley, I'm going to holster my weapon. Let me talk to you. We can work this out," Nick was trying to avoid getting the old man hurt as he did as he said he would. He'd had enough hurt and killing Gregg wasn't going to fix it.

"What about Marge? Don't you think she wants you to come home?" Nick asked.

"She would want me to finish what  _HE_  started," Lindley was at the end of his rope and there was no more time for talking. His finger pulled the trigger back and in quick succession three bullets left the downed officers weapon. Nick then made a move to head toward the man before the court officers opened fire.

"Nick! No!" Without thinking Olivia ran at her partner as a hail of gunfire erupted.

"Liv!" Elliot shouted.


	28. Chapter 28

He wanted to rush by her side but he couldn't let go of the downed court officer just yet. Elliot quickly took stock of the situation as he watched the court officers holstered their weapons and quickly dropped to check the group of people on the floor.

"Someone get over here!" Elliot shouted as he saw the courtroom doors open. Fin poked his head out and when he heard Elliot screaming, he came running with Carisi and Rollins in hot pursuit.

"Baby girl!" Fin stopped short and dropped to the floor quickly checking on the Sergeant before ordering Carisi to help Elliot. Rollins practically knocked the court officer out of the way to get to Nick.

Once Carisi had the situation under control, Elliot leapt up and ran to Fin who was checking Olivia over. She seemed to be talking and that was a good sign. His hope was short lived when he heard Rollins scream into her radio,

"Ten-Thirteen! Ten-Thirteen! Officers Down at the courthouse!" Elliot dropped down next to Fin and the two shared a look. They could hear the footsteps of other court officers as they came running down the hall.

"Don't move Baby girl. You may have broken some ribs. That marble floor is hard," Fin tried to get her to stay still while Fin pulled off his jacket.

"It feels like I did. How's Nick?" She huffed but reached out for Elliot when she saw him. He tried not to say anything as he noticed the blood from the wound in her side was beginning to pool on the floor.

"I'll take a look in a sec. Hold on now. This is going to hurt," Fin said as he took his jacket and pressed it into her wound. Olivia bit down on her bottom lip and squeezed Elliot's hand.

"Hold this cowboy while I check the rest of her out," Fin said. Elliot used his other hand and pressed down where the jacket was. He mouthed the words "I'm sorry" to her as she squeezed his hand again.

"These guys are bad shots," Elliot could hear Fin mutter as he inspected the wound in Olivia's leg. Elliot was glad they had been but he could understand Fin's concerns. Officers should have been a better shot.

"I need some help! Nick! Stay with me!" Rollins was losing it next to them and Fin quickly went to her aid, letting Olivia's not too serious leg wound go for the moment.

"Where are those damned buses?" Rollins cursed. Nick had been hit in the thigh and he was bleeding profusely. The pool of the life sustaining liquid was getting bigger and Fin noticed that the younger detective had already lost consciousness.

"I need something for a tourniquet!" Fin barked and one of the court officers handed him their own belt. Between the two of them, Fin and Rollins got the makeshift strap into place and tightened it. That's when Nick woke up and let out a scream.

"Glad to see you're still with us," Fin smirked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Gregg is dead as is Mr. Lindley," one of the guards who had come running announced to the group.

"Take the officers' weapons into custody and preserve what you can of the crime scene. When those medics come through we're going to lose evidence," the older detective ordered.

"Yes sir!" The guard nodded and he quickly set about getting things done with the help of the other officers at the scene.

"Paramedics coming through!" One of the officers yelled and everyone cleared a path.

"What have we got?" The head paramedic asked.

"He's got a nasty leg wound. You better take him first," Fin said.

"I'm going with him," Rollins said.

"Good," Fin nodded before continuing with the head paramedic, "We've got a head wound over there and the Sergeant has wounds in her side and leg."

"All right. Let's get a move on people," the head paramedic ordered as Nick was scooped up onto the first stretcher and carried out. The downed court officer was next, followed by Olivia. Elliot scrambled into the ambulance with her while Fin and Carisi were left to handle the situation at the courthouse.

Elliot was forced into the waiting area as they took Olivia away and prepped her for surgery. He hated that because he wasn't family and he was no longer her partner that he would be relegated to waiting and not getting any information. Fin sent him a text saying that he'd contacted Nick's ex-wife and mother and that he was Olivia's emergency medical contact and he hoped to be at the hospital soon. It stung a little bit that Olivia had changed her emergency contact but he supposed that after what happened with Jenna and his early retirement, she didn't have much of a choice.

"Elliot?" A very familiar voice snapped him back to reality and he looked up at the person standing in the doorway to the waiting room.

"Kathy?" Unsure why he was surprised that she was here.  _She works at this hospital, you idiot_ , he scolded himself.

"Are you all right?" It was then that he looked down at his hands to find blood all over them. There was even some on his shirt. He knew right then that it had to be Olivia's blood and that made him go pale. There seemed to be a lot of it.

"I… No, I'm not," he admitted. Kathy quickly went over to him and checked him over.

"Whose blood is that?" She asked, quickly realizing it wasn't his.

"It's Liv's," the words were barely above a whisper as a horrible thought crossed his mind and Kathy could see his face twist and she knew it wasn't good. While she and Olivia had had their differences, Kathy hated to see anything bad happen to her. It was quite obvious that he had cleaned himself up and her guess was that Olivia must have been helping him pull himself out of the pit that was his troubles.

"There may have been some transfer of blood! I was helping someone else before I was helping Liv!" Elliot was almost beside himself.

"Whoa, whoa. Slow down. What happened?" She asked. He quickly explained what had happened at the courthouse and Kathy now understood what he had been getting at.

"Ok, I'll let the doctors know," Kathy promised, not bothering to ask why a man who no longer had a badge was at the scene of such a horrific incident. She then hauled him out of his seat and down to an examination room. Any open cuts in his hands would allow the transfer of the first victim's blood into him as well. Once he was in the examination room, she quickly contacted the operating theaters and alerted them to the possibility of an issue.  _I hope that this is just an over precaution_ , Kathy said to herself. While she might have not been in love with Elliot anymore, she still wanted to be sure that he was all right. Pushing the thoughts that bubbled to the surface of just what kind of relationship her ex-husband and his former partner had, she got to work.


	29. Chapter 29

Olivia moaned and opened her eyes. The light in the room wasn't bothering her it was the chorus of snores coming from the men in the room. She quickly took stock and saw that Elliot and Fin were making the most noise, given their probably very uncomfortable positions in the chairs near her hospital bed, but then she noticed Noah was doing it in his stroller too.

"Dear God don't teach him that," she muttered to herself. A smirk crossed her face as she thought of something that would get the boys out of their seats.

"Ten hut!" She shouted, regretting it immediately as the wound in her right side didn't really allow her to breathe too deeply, nor did the broken ribs on her left side. Elliot fell out of his seat and then shot up straight at attention and found himself saluting.  _Old habits die hard_ , Olivia smirked. Fin was less put together as he stumbled upon standing, knocking the chair over, and getting himself all tangled up. Elliot quickly went over and helped him up. Through the whole incident all Noah did was roll over in his stroller and stop snoring. Olivia couldn't help but laugh.

"Very funny, Baby Girl," Fin shook his head.

"You guys were worse than a chorus of bull frogs," she was still laughing, despite the pain.

"I haven't heard that laugh in a long time. You must be having a fever," Fin laughed and Elliot went over to her to make sure their little bit of fun hadn't pulled any stitches.

"Looking good," he gave her a wink. She smiled and then asked,

"Is everything ok? Why is Noah here?"

"Lucy needs a raise and a vacation. She was going to stay with the little man after I called her but I told her, I'd bring him. Figured you'd want to see him," Fin explained. Then as if he knew they were talking about him, Noah woke up and gurgled. Fin scooped him out of the stroller and carefully set him next to Olivia.

"Who's Momma's big boy?" She asked him and he smiled. She gently pulled him into as much of a hug as she could, vowing to wear her bullet-proof vest everyday even if she didn't need it.

"Nick is down the hall in recovery. They were able to get his leg in good shape but he'll be on desk duty for probably the next six to eight weeks. Of course that fits because you're going to be out that long with your injuries. Although it sounds like Nick is going to need therapy for his knee wound which you won't because it was a through and through in the thigh," Tutuola gave her the update on the younger detective as Noah settled into Olivia's less injured left side and snuggled in.

"Oh I was worried he'd gotten himself killed. I have no idea what he was thinking. As much as I hated to see Mr. Lindley doing what he was doing, I didn't want any of the officers on the scene to get hurt. I bet IAB is all over this. Nothing like a good friendly-fire incident to get them going," Olivia shook her head and frowned.

"Oh Tucker was all over it. Said he'd swing by the hospital tomorrow to get statements which seemed fairly nice of him actually," Fin commented.

"Well the court officer…" the Sergeant started.

"Officer Amy Mitchell. She's going to be ok. Nasty concussion and head wound but they expect her to make a full recovery," the detective filled in.

"Oh good. Well at least we're all in halfway decent shape. What about the three officers who did the shooting?" Olivia wanted to know.

"Two of them are inconsolable and the third is semi-functioning. They're upset at what happened and their afraid of losing their jobs, you know how that is," Fin said.

"Oh I think we all know how that is," Elliot nodded. He'd been silent, allowing Fin to update his former partner as much as he could. Now he had to tell Olivia about the incident with the possibility of blood transfer. He moved over to her and grabbed her free hand and she gave him a confused look. Elliot opened his mouth but never got the words out as the door to the room opened and Kathy stormed in. Before anyone realized what was going on, she'd practically bowled Fin over but he managed to grab her around the waist.

"I'd keep your hands to yourself if I was you. I don't want to have to arrest you for assaulting a police officer," Fin told her. Olivia could see the anger in her former partner's ex-wife's eyes.

"Fin, let her go," the Sergeant said. The detective gave her a look but complied and Kathy let out a breath that she'd apparently been holding.

"So this is what you two have been up to?!" Her voice louder than she realized. Noah looked like he was about to cry and Olivia grabbed his tiny little hands, which calmed him down slightly.

" _Noah_  is in my care via the foster care system. His mother is dead and his father is a violent criminal offender we arrested not too long ago. I'm going to adopt him," the Sergeant clarified in a calm tone, hoping that would help the situation. Kathy looked at her but the woman wasn't embarrassed so now Olivia was confused.

"Not him!" This time the paperwork that the woman held in her hand was thrust into Olivia's face and Elliot grabbed it.

"Kathy, please calm down," he said, without reading what she had.

"I had the lab put a rush on the results from the tests we needed to run and most of the results won't be back for at least a couple of days but this one was easy to figure out! I knew you were screwing around with this whore!" Kathy spat.

"All right! That's it!" Fin grabbed the blonde before she could do anything else and hauled her toward the door.

"You come in here again and I'll call the hospital administrator. You'll be looking for a job in short order. I don't care what you think was going on but you never call Baby Girl a whore," with that Fin shoved her out into the hallway and slammed the door shut. He turned back to Elliot and Olivia and saw that the latter was trying to keep it together but he wasn't sure she would be able to. Elliot was trying to comfort her and the piece of paper that Kathy had thrust into their faces was lying on the bed.

"I'm sorry she did that. She seemed perfectly fine when I saw her earlier. We had to run tests because there was a possibility that your blood and Officer Mitchell's blood had mingled and…," Elliot was trying to explain.

"What does it say?" Fin asked, partially hating to interrupt but also partially curious if it was bad news. He wasn't sure how much more bad news that Olivia could take. Johnny D's lawyer had dropped off paperwork the morning of the shooting and she had been close to tears when she read it. Fin didn't know what the paperwork was or if she'd discussed it with Elliot so he didn't bring it up but he knew that it would add to the pile that was just heaped onto her.

"I didn't read it," Elliot confessed, turning from Olivia and then scooping it up. He handed it to her, since they were her results, and she took as deep a breath as she could before reading it.

"Oh my God," she murmured.


	30. Chapter 30

"As much as I hate to admit it, that's where things stand," Lieutenant Tucker spoke to Olivia alone in her hospital room. He had concluded his investigation four days after the shooting and today was the day that the Sergeant would be heading home.

"My unit is a mess. Who's going to be running the show?" Benson asked, resting her forehead on her right hand.

"Well you will be confined to desk duty until you're one hundred percent but I convinced the brass that you could still lead the unit from there. Though they are still pushing for at least a lieutenant to run your unit," Tucker explained.

"I've been ordered on bed rest for the next two weeks, thanks to the broken ribs," she pointed out.

"I spoke to One PP, Lieutenant Declan Murphy is available so they gave him command until you're able to come back," the Lieutenant assured her.

"He's a bit of a wild card isn't he?" Olivia gave him a look. She liked Declan but he took a lot of chances.

"Oh please like you and Stabler weren't? Speaking of which, you guys back on good terms? I saw him out in the hall," the IAB detective was curious.

"Sort of," not telling him everything she knew.

"He need a job?" He wanted to know.

"Weren't you the one who told him they were going to do a full investigation on him and probably fire him?" Olivia gave him a look, not sure where this was going.

"Well you're going to be short a detective and experienced SVU detectives are in short supply. I might be able to convince One PP that it's cheaper and easier to bring Stabler out of retirement rather than breaking in a new detective, especially since you already have one," Tucker explained. Olivia was still unsure if this would be a good thing. As much as working with Elliot again would be great, she wondered if the unit would then be under even more scrutiny than it already was.

"There won't be any questions from the brass? They've been breathing down my neck since I took command," she pointed out.

"Take that Lieutenants exam and they won't have much to say," he countered.

"All right but I have to come clean about everything," Olivia heaved a sigh.

"Everything? You been holding out on me Benson?" Tucker gave her a look. She waved to Elliot out in the hall and he entered the room.

"You need me to kick him out?" Elliot asked with a slight smirk, unaware of just how Olivia's and Ed's relationship had changed in recent years.

"No. I need you to come here and listen. There's a big decision we need to make," she said.

"We?" Tucker gave them a look. Elliot took a seat and the two of them quickly and carefully described their current relationship status.

An hour after Tucker left, the detectives piled into Nick's hospital room, Olivia was already in the room having been brought in, in a wheelchair right after the IAB detective left. Tucker had promised to let her reveal the results of his investigation to the team and she had told Nick was his options were. He had quickly explained that it didn't matter what his options were, he was retiring and moving to California and the LAPD.

"All three officers involved in the shooting have been suspended for two weeks without pay and will be sent for psychological exams to determine if they can still participate on the force. Those that cannot return to full active duty will be forced to retire so they still have access to medical benefits," Olivia started.

"That seems pretty generous. There has to be a catch," Fin gave her a look.

"Oh there is. Tucker informed me that we are left we very few options but both of them require Nick leaving the unit," she explained.

"What?" Rollins was upset.

"One PP sees what he did as dangerous. So his options were desk duty in another unit that doesn't do much field work or retirement," the Sergeant continued. Rollins turned to Nick and he gave her a slight smile.

"I'm retiring. My kids are out in California and I'm going out there. I have a job waiting for me. I was going to leave anyway before all of this happened," Nick said.

"Well sounds like you had it all figured out," Fin remarked although he noted the look on Amanda's face. She wasn't taking it well.

"Good luck Nick. It was great working with you," Carisi shook his hand.

"Thanks," the young man smiled.

"There's a little more to it. Lieutenant Murphy will be heading up the unit until I'm cleared for desk duty. You guys behave for him please? I know we have a bit of a history with him and that's why he was selected," Olivia filled them in.

"They're still messing with you about that Lieutenant's exam aren't they?" Fin asked.

"If I take it and pass, the brass will leave the unit alone, especially since we're losing Nick," she said.

"No pressure then," Carisi shook his head.

"It gets better," Olivia paused and looked at Elliot. He nodded and she swallowed before continuing,

"Elliot and I just found out that we're going to have a baby." She expected silence and even some dumbfounded stares but what actually happened were congratulations. Fin clapped Elliot on the back. Amanda gave Olivia a careful hug before helping her over to Nick, who gave her hand a squeeze. Carisi shook hands with the proud poppa to be.

"So what does that mean?" Rollins asked, everyone wondering the same thing. The future seemed even more uncertain.

"Well I need someone to take the Sergeant's exam so that while I'm out on maternity leave, the unit has someone in command. If not, we'll get one rotated in, and things probably won't be so smooth until I get back," Olivia admitted.

"But won't one of us get rotated out if we do that?" Fin asked; it was what was going to happen when Munch was nearing retirement.

"Not, if I'm lieutenant," she confirmed.

"Oh so really no pressure," Rollins commented.

"It's a little tricky, I'll admit but I'm committed to this unit and to every one of you so I'll do whatever I can to keep us together," the Sergeant told them.

"We're going to be a man down," Carisi pointed out.

"Tucker is working on that right now," Olivia acknowledged. She didn't know how many strings there were left to pull but she knew that despite their past troubles, the IAB detective would try his best to deliver.


	31. Epilogue

Three weeks later, both Nick and Olivia were out of the hospital and well on their way to recovery. The rest of the blood test results came in a few days after talking with Tucker and luckily Olivia was clear. Since her release from the hospital, Elliot had been taking good care of Olivia and had helped her finish what she started with the adoption papers for Noah. Despite Barba's cautions against listing the father on the paperwork, Olivia insisted, and Elliot understood. Olivia spent most of her childhood wondering who her father was and despite the awful things he had done to her mother, she had always wanted to know. Noah would know one way or the other and he could make the decision to love his adoptive mother just as he always had or to learn about his biological parents and go from there.

"Can I ask you a question?" Elliot said as he put the finishing touches on the decorations for the party that he and Olivia were holding to celebrate the official adoption completion.

"Sure, anything," she smiled from her spot on the couch. Noah was sitting next to her playing with his new toys from Jimmy upstairs.

"Would you mind if I was put as an emergency contact for Noah? I know that technically he's a Benson but I want to be there for the little guy," Elliot said as he maneuvered and sat down on the other side of Noah on the couch.

"You think you're going somewhere Stabler?" She gave him a quizzical look.

"Never. My place is here with you and our little bundle of joy that's on the way, I just wasn't sure if you'd want to do it. You started this process before I got here and I wasn't sure how far you wanted to go," he admitted, taking her hand in his, just behind Noah.

"Noah loves you and I think the best thing we could do for him is have him change his last name, one more time," Olivia winked at him.

"I would be honored to adopt the little guy," Elliot beamed.

"Good because it's already done. I changed the paperwork before slipping into that envelope you took to Judge Linden's office," she smirked.

"You sneaky little devil," he laughed before leaning over carefully and giving her a kiss.

"I'm glad you asked. To be honest, I wanted someone to be able to take care of Noah should something happen to me. It's a scary thought that when I was a single mom that there would be no one that could make decisions and help him if I wasn't available. I couldn't let him feel abandoned, not after everything he's been through," Olivia admitted.

"You know I will love him like he's my own," he said.

"I know and that's why I did it. I know I should have asked but I can't imagine life without either of you and I hoped that we would be a family," she told him.

"When it comes to you and the things you love, you don't have to ask. Well as long as they aren't crazy, then you should always ask," Elliot pointed out.

"I'll keep that in mind," Olivia laughed. Just then the door buzzer rang and Elliot hopped up off the couch. He went over to the button and asked who was there.

"Fin, Rollins, and Nick. Carisi said he'd be swinging by separately. Something about getting something he'd forgotten," the elder detective told him.

"Come on up," Elliot said, pushing the button.

"Well it looks like we're going to get this party started Noah. We best get you off the couch," Olivia said, automatically reaching for him.

"Oh no you don't. No baby lifting until after the doctor checks those ribs of yours," Elliot came over and picked up the little tyke before setting him in his playpen and moving the toys too.

"I can't believe I have to wait another three weeks," she groaned.

"Me neither baby but we really shouldn't talk about our bedroom activities in front of the child," he teased. She would have smacked him in the arm if she wasn't trying to carefully extract herself from the couch.

"Elliot Stabler," she gave him a look.

"What?" He chuckled as there was a knock on the door. He went over and ushered the team in.

"Hey guys," he smiled.

"Thanks for having us," Rollins smiled right before she went right over to Noah.

"Don't be eyeing him now. He's off the market," Elliot joked.

"I can't help it. He is such a cutie," Rollins smiled. It was a rare sight for the blonde who had had enough family drama in her lifetime to last another lifetime.

"That he is," Fin chuckled.

"No denying that," Nick nodded as he worked his way over to the oversized armchair and hassock. Elliot helped him get into the chair and prop his leg up. The leg was encased in a knee support brace which allowed him to adjust it slightly when the wound in his thigh bothered him and it supported his damaged knee. At the time of the incident everyone had been focused on his thigh because of the damage there and the blood loss but the knee injury had been noticed by the paramedics upon further proper medical inspection.

"You good?" The elder man asked.

"Nice and comfy," Nick smirked. Elliot nodded and then buzzed off to get people drinks.

"Thanks for the beer and the wine guys," he said while he divvied out drinks. He handed Olivia an iced tea. She pouted just to tease him.

"No problem. Hope we brought enough," Amanda said. She was now sitting in one of the chairs from the kitchen table with Noah on her lap.

"Oh I'm sure you did. We've got three who can't have any," Elliot winked as he handed Noah a sippy cup of apple juice.

"Yeah he's a little young to start that," Rollins laughed as she took the wine glass in her free hand. There was a knock on the door and Elliot headed over. The buzzer hadn't rung but he figured that Carisi came in with someone else.

"Sorry I'm late," the newer detective said.

"What have you got there?" Elliot looked at him, very surprised.

"My cousin had twins and they were done with the stroller so I thought you and the Sergeant could use it," Carisi smiled.

"That's fantastic," Elliot smiled and helped him get it through the door. Olivia looked up and saw the massive two seater stroller and said,

"Wow."

"For us, Liv. Well more for the kids," Elliot admitted.

"Carisi, I don't know what to say…" Olivia trailed off.

"No worries. Just thought it might be helpful to bring the little tykes into the office when you needed to," he gave a wink.

"Oh I see. Everyone wants to see my kids," Olivia laughed.

"Well if the other one is half as cute as Noah…" Rollins said. To this everyone laughed.

"It's a deal," Olivia smirked. Together they enjoyed the afternoon, talking, laughing, and enjoying. Soon however, it was time to say goodbye.

A few weeks later when Nick was leaving for Los Angeles, he promised them he would stay in touch. Olivia gave him a big hug and told him that she would miss him and that she appreciated him putting up with her reluctance at the beginning of their partnership. He told her that she was glad that she'd put up with him and that he would always be grateful for his time with her and with the team. Everyone watched him walk into security at the airport, saying their final goodbyes. While it was sad to see him go, they knew he would be in good hands across the country.

They then quickly split up, everyone having to get back to work the next day. Elliot and Olivia hopped into a cab with Noah and the latter reflected on how things had so drastically changed in the last few months. She had been alone but now she had a family and she was determined to hang onto that family for as long as she could.

**THE END**


End file.
